liiiriilerns of 



;\;N:^:i:E-M.:-MA€LEA:N ■; 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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Class 

Book 

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CLQEaRIGHT DEPOSm 



The National Social Science Series 

Edited by Frank L. McVey, Ph.D., LL.D., 
President of the University of Kentucky 

IVow Ready; Each, One Dollar 

AMERICAN CITY, THE. Henry C. Wright, First 
Deputy Commissioner, Department of Public Charities, 
New York City. 

BANKING. William A. Scott, Professor of Political 
Economy, The University of Wisconsin. 

COST OF LIVING, THE. W. E. Clark, Professor of 
Political Science, The College of the City of New York. 

CAUSE AND CURE OF CRIME, THE. Charles R. 
Henderson, late Professor of Sociology, The University 
of Chicago. 

FAMILY AND SOCIETY, THE. John M. Gillette, 
Professor of Sociology, The University of North Dakota. 

GOVERNMENT FINANCEIN THEUNITED STATES. 
Carl C. Plehn, Professor of Finance, The University of 
California. 

HOUSING AND THE HOUSING PROBLEM. Carol 
Aronovici, Lecturer on Social Problems, The University 
of Minnesota. 

MONEY. William A. Scott. 

MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE GREAT WAR, THE. 
Arnold Bennett Hall, Associate Professor of Political 
Science, The University of Wisconsin. 

NATIONAL EVOLUTION. George R. Davies, Assistant 
Professor in the Department of Economics, Princeton 
University. 



PROPERTY AND SOCIETY. A. A. Bruce, Associate 
Justice Supreme Court, North Dakota. 

PSYCHOLOGY OF CITIZENSHIP, THE. Arland D. 
Weeks, Professor of Education, North Dakota Agricul- 
tural College. 

RURAL PROBLEMS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
James E. Boyle, Extension Professor of Rural Economy, 
College of Agriculture, Cornell University. 

SOCIAL ANTAGONISMS. Arland D. Weeks. 

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT. George R. Davies. 

SOCIAL INSURANCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Gurdon Ransom Miller, Professor of Sociology and 
Economics, Colorado State Teachers' College. 

SOCIOLOGY. John M. Gillette. 

SOME PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION. Annie 
Marion MacLean, Extension Assistant Professor of 
Sociology, The University of Chicago. 

STATE AND GOVERNMENT, THE. J. S. Young, Pro- 
fessor of Political Science, The University of Minnesota. 

STATISTICS. William B. Bailey, Professor of Practical 
Philanthropy, Yale University, and John Cummings, Ex- 
pert Special Agent, Bureau of the Census. 

SYMPATHY AND SYSTEM IN GIVING. Elwood 
Street, Director of Welfare League, Louisville, and Sec- 
retary, American Association for Community Organiza- 
tion. 

TAXATION. C. B. Fillebrown, late President Massa- 
chusetts Single Tax League. 

TRUSTS AND COMPETITION. John F. Crowell, 
Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. 

WOMEN WORKERS AND SOCIETY. Annie Marion 
MacLean. 



Some Problems of Reconstruction 



By 

Annie Marion MacLean, Ph.D. 

Author of "Wage-Earning Women," 
"Women Workers and So- 
ciety," "Cheero," Etc. 




CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
1921 






Copyright 

A. C McClurg & Co. 

1921 



Published December, 1921 



Printed in the United States of America 

DEC 3171 

g)C!.A653363 



\4 



To My Sister 

MILDRED Maclean 

Whose clear vision has helped to focus my at- 
tention on the need for a reconstructed world 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

RECONSTRUCTION during the later years of 
the World War was referred to everywhere 
as the essential step if society was to get on. The 
problems that were apparent in the previous 
decade were emphasized by war conditions and 
publicists urged the need of reforms and changes 
to meet the conditions produced by the world 
conflict. The close of the war, however, left all 
the nations, including our own, discouraged or 
lethargic, and slow to undertake the steps neces- 
sary to a larger social program. 

A book on reconstruction at this time, despite 
the number already published, seems desirable. 
Most of the books published on the subject have 
been rather extended and technical for the aver- 
age reader. Miss MacLean's book is, in a meas- 
ure, a review of the problems of reconstruction 
stated in an attractive way. The book ought to 
be of real value in introducing to the reader the 
problems of reconstruction, and as such, it is 
given a place in the National Social Science Series 
with the feeling on the part of the editor that the 
public will find it of great assistance in opening 
the way for the study of the problems of recon- 
struction. 

F. L. M. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

THIS brief study is offered in the hope that it 
may help to stimulate interest in some of the 
vital problems that we, in common with other 
peoples, are facing at the present time. More- 
over, it is presented in the belief that there are no 
more absorbing questions upon which to focus 
attention than those which have to do with a 
reconstructed world. Unless more favorable con- 
ditions for all men emerge, the devastating war 
through which we have passed will be ** a mere 
meaningless blot on the pages of history." 

In the preparation of this book, many have 
helped me by spoken and written words. To all 
of these I extend my thanks. 

Annie Marion MacLean. 
evanston, illinois. 
October 7, 1921. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Introduction 1 

II Preservation of the Democratic 

Ideal 13 

III Industrial Unrest 26 

IV Woman's Labor 44 

V Americanization 64 

VI The Negro 83 

VII Housing 98 

VIII Education 116 

IX Radicalism 132 



SOME PROBLEMS OF 
RECONSTRUCTION 



THE NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES 



The purpose of this series is to furnish for busy 

men and women a brief but essentially 

sane and sound discussion of present-day 

questions. The authors have been 

chosen with care from men who 

are in first-hand contact with 

the materials, and who 

will bring to the 

reader the newest 

phases of the 

subject. 



Some Problems of Reconstruction 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

A WORLD at war presents problems of vast 
proportions, but they are solved as they 
appear because the nations involved are acting 
under the tremendous spur of necessity and 
patriotism. In war time, love of country be- 
comes a fetish ; everything else is, and must be, 
of secondary importance. Fighting for a com- 
mon cause seems to ennoble men. No sacrifice 
is too great to make when existence may be at 
stake. The national blood is at fever heat. But 
with the coming of peace, even a victorious peace, 
there is a relaxation, a loosening of the tension, 
that of itself makes the new problems difficult. 
War weariness has seized the world, and men 
moan at the thought of further effort, yet they 
must be prodded on if we are to reap the bene- 
fit of the struggle. 

The new era is upon us, the new world for 
which millions of men suffered and died ; and 
new problems have come with it. Things can 
never be as they were. Human thoughts have 
undergone change ; democracy has taken on new 
meaning; old solutions are valueless; reconstnic- 



2 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

tion is the watchword ; more than that, it is the 
task. After years of tearing down, rebuilding 
brings new hope to the nations of the earth. Old 
material must be employed, but it will find new 
uses. 

It is this making-over process, the readjust- 
ment of things to meet new needs, that forms 
the subject-matter of this book. The term ** re- 
construction " is adopted because it is the word 
in common use to denote this task, and every- 
one understands its content. Reconstruction, then, 
is the problem of the world, since most of the 
world was at war, but it is a problem that, for 
purposes of discussion, must be broken up into 
many sections. 

The various European countries had to face 
reconstruction first, and had their plans of re- 
organization well under way before the United 
States joined the belligerents. This was par- 
ticularly true of the plans for the rehabilitation 
of disabled soldiers. It was of the greatest im- 
portance that men should be salvaged for further 
fighting, when fighting men were at a premium. 
And it seems as if human ingenuity could go no 
further than it has gone in this rehabilitation work. 
Bodies seemingly useless have been restored to 
a maximum of usefulness. Limbs that went for 
democracy's sake have been replaced by me- 
chanical devices, and the owner is a wage-earner 
again. Wits to destroy have been checkmated by 
wits to restore. This is undoubtedly one of the 
notable contributions of medical science to the 



Introduction 



world during the past few years. Belgium was the 
first country to undertake this particular kind of 
work. A Belgian nobleman having a large estate 
in France took into his home wounded soldiers 
from his own country, and to make them happy, 
sought to furnish them with congenial tasks. This 
work grew till it was finally taken over by the 
Belgian government. Other countries soon saw 
the need for similar action, and developed methods 
adapted to their own needs. The reconstruction 
of devastated areas is a simple task compared with 
the rehabilitation of mentally or physically 
broken men. The latter calls for an entirely 
new kind of engineer. In taking up this par- 
ticular activity, the United States^ had the bene- 
fit of the experience of other countries, and 
modeled her plans very closely upon those of 
Canada, whose problems were almost identical 
with ours. Canada even lent one of her experts 
to inaugurate the work here. 

But this, after all, is a problem by itself, and 
the work is of quite limited usefulness inasmuch 
as it applies to only one set of men, that is 
wounded soldiers. When they shall have been 
rendered as fit as possible, the end of it has 
come. 

The one great gain to society that can accrue 
from such a work of human rehabilitation is its 
extension to those who are disabled in industry 

* Harris, Redemption of the Disabled; a Study of Pro- 
grammes of Rehabilitation for the Disabled of War and of 
Industry. 



4 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

in all lands. The annual human wreckage in 
industry in the United States alone is greater than 
the total number of our soldiers disabled by the 
war. If a new value, through redemptive work 
for war victims is given to human life, which has 
always been held cheap in our industrial pro- 
cesses, the war will not have been fought in vain, 
and soldiers will not have suffered to no pur- 
pose. A man broken by industry can be made 
as useful to society as a soldier broken by war. 
While making the world safe for those who 
fought for democracy, we might make it safe 
for machine tenders who are an indispensable 
body of men. 

But aside from special tasks like the one just 
discussed, there are so many others of a more 
general nature demanding attention that men 
everywhere have had to recognize them, and 
make provision to meet them. The end of a 
great war leaves very unstable social and 
economic conditions, which must be considered 
with seriousness if we are to emerge without 
unsightly scars. An understanding of this fact 
has led practically all the European countries, 
and some others, to establish commissions^ to 
deal with the problems naturally arising. 

France was the first to lay plans for general 
after-the-war work, and this, of course, was be- 



^The following have established commissions: France, 
Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan, Russia, 
Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Chile, 
Brazil, and Colombia. 



Introduction 5 



cause of her devastated lands. As early as May 
18, 1916, an interministerial committee was cre- 
ated to make plans for restoring the invaded 
areas. This committee, reorganized several times, 
has sought to give necessary aid by means of 
securing legislation and appropriations and mak- 
ing wise suggestions. In her endeavors, France 
has had financial aid from many persons and 
agencies, chiefly American, because the pathos 
of the situation makes a strong appeal to wealthy 
people of generous impulses. The reconstruc- 
tion problems of France are, of course, more 
serious than those of any country except Bel- 
gium, since battle fields must be redeemed in 
addition to the revivifying of economic activity, 
and the remolding of industrial and social life. 

In neutral countries, like Scandinavia, recon- 
struction work resolves itself into the formation 
of feasible plans for the resumption of trade inter- 
rupted by the years of strife. A serious enough 
problem, it is true, since foreign trade is the 
lifeblood of the nations. While neutral coun- 
tries suflFered seriously on the economic side, 
they lacked the moral stimulus of fighting for 
a cause. With them reconstruction becomes in- 
evitably more mechanical than with the warring 
nations. Owing to the exigencies of war, some 
hard trade restrictions were placed upon them, 
and much suffering had to be endured. The 
tragedy of war is that the innocent suffer with 
the guilty. 

On account of her vast resources, splendid war 



6 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

organization, and lateness in entering the strug- 
gle, the United States suffered, in most respects, 
less than the neutrals, yet she had to undergo the 
transition from a war to a peace basis which is 
no simple task, and it has raised questions of 
tremendous import particularly along industrial 
lines. 

In order to illustrate the magnitude of the 
work under discussion. Great Britain, whose 
problems and ideals are in many respects similar 
to ours, may be taken as an example. On August 
21, 191 7, the Ministry of Reconstruction was 
established " to promote organization and de- 
velopment after the termination of the war." 
The Ministry consists of eighty-seven com- 
mittees and commissions classified into fifteen 
groups^ as follows: (i) Trade Development, 
(2) Finance, (3) Raw Materials, (4) Coal and 
Power, (5) Intelligence, (6) Scientific and In- 
dustrial Research, (7) Demobilization and Dis- 
posal of Stores, (8) Labor and Employment, 
(9) Agriculture and Forestry, (10) Public 
Administration, (11) Housing, (12) Education, 
(13) Aliens, (14) Legal (pre-war contracts, 
and "period of the war"), (15) Miscellaneous 
(munitions, land settlement, and civil serial 
transport). 

Even a cursory glance at the foregoing is suf- 
ficient to show that practically all the relations 
of life have been affected by the mighty strug- 



* Friedman, Labor and Reconstruction in Europe, pp. 4-5. 



Introduction 



gle through which Great Britain has passed. 
And this probably means that never again will 
men be satisfied in the old grooves. New ones 
must be made, however much some loved the 
past. Men seem to settle down in the old places 
after cataclysms in nature, but not after great 
moral and spiritual upheavals. Italian peasants 
settle again and again on the sides of Vesuvius 
and peacefully raise grapes when the monster 
within has ceased its destructive eruptions, but 
when a moral issue like the " divine right of 
kings " has been overturned, men look about for 
new spiritual moorings. And when the fight for 
democracy has been won, old autocratic notions 
will not be tolerated. This is what makes revo- 
lutions stimulating to alert thinkers ; this is what 
makes times of intellectual turmoil a joyous op- 
portunity for enthusiasts ; and this is what makes 
reconstruction programs of absorbing interest to 
the man on the street. All want to know how and 
when their particular estate will be improved, 
and a laudable enough desire it is. For what 
possible justification can there be, they think, 
for a world war to abolish privilege, unless the 
world becomes a better place for all sorts and 
conditions of people to live in, and there is none 
that civilization can give. The slogan, " Busi- 
ness as usual " did not satisfy ; it could not. Life 
cannot go on the same when other life is being 
poured out for an ideal, and it should not. No 
colossal struggle can be successfully treated as 
an incident in a nation's life. 



8 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

In the first years of the World War, England 
tried to ignore post-war problems. They were 
not to be discussed, but that policy proved a 
failure, and she commenced to talk about the 
future and to build for it. This same attitude 
was observed in Italy, Japan, and other coun- 
tries, but they all learned that mere denial of a 
situation does not make it non-existant. The 
adoption of such a policy in England at the be- 
ginning of the war was designed to keep up the 
morale, and to inspire confidence, but problems 
were accumulating whether they were recog- 
nized or not, and they were problems that would 
take the best brains of the nation to solve. 

It is equally true in this country that mere 
denial that there are things in need of correction 
will not cause the disappearance of the undesir- 
able conditions. It is no simple task to shift 
from war control of industry to normal, even 
though congressional legislation provided that 
this should be done expeditiously after the ter- 
mination of the war. 

Reconstruction problems in this country may 
be divided into two general classes. First, those 
having to do with war control, whether of food, 
fuel, or railroads, and export and import trade, 
or the demobilization of the army and its re- 
entry into civil life; and second, those larger 
questions of industrial and social life which have 
been accentuated by the war. 

To the first group belong those problems 
which are settled by experts with or without 



Introduction 



much cooperation on the part of the public. 
Demobilization, for example, was accomplished 
swiftly in accordance with well-laid plans, and, 
little by little, war control has given way. To the 
second group, on the other hand, belong those 
problems in which the public is intimately in- 
terested, and upon the solution of which rests 
the new and better era to which all are looking 
forward. These relate to the extension of op- 
portunity to the common man, and are the sub- 
jects to be discussed in this volume. They relate 
to the new position that ordinary men and 
women are determined to take as a result of 
the fight for democracy, and they are as old as 
modern industry itself. Many are looking for 
a new heaven and a new earth, or rather a new 
heaven on a new earth.' They want a new society 
not built on class interests, but reasonably in- 
telligent people know that social changes come 
gradually, and are willing to grapple with re- 
construction problems to that end. As an English 
writer has said : 

The nation's moral awakening has come, now comes the 
need for the moral life. Yet let us not look for miracles. 
Whatever the new England becomes, will be the result of 
long and painful efifort, of sacrifice, and renunciation of all 
kinds, made by men and women of good will ; and we 
shall succeed in proportion as we keep before our eyes ideals 
that are not so high that they lose themselves in the sky, 



A consummation seemingly remote at the present time. 



lO Some Problems of Reconstruction 



aiming at the best practicable for the present, and from that 
slowly working on to the best conceivable/ 

We in this country need ask for no greater 
wisdom than this. It is not a working plan that 
will please radicals, but it must appeal to all 
serious-minded persons who know anything at 
all about human psychology, and who are eager 
for a better world. There is the greatest neces- 
sity for a careful study of all the phases of re- 
construction, since it is only by scientific study 
that correct conclusions can be drawn. Men 
are prone to settle social questions on emotional 
grounds, when they would never dream of trying 
to settle astronomical or historical questions in 
like fashion. 

The problems to be studied here are so inter- 
woven with industry, that they might all be 
regarded as phases of the industrial problem, 
since it is through industry that men, even those 
who know nothing of personal toil, live and 
move and have their being. This is the reason 
that the labor question looms so large in the re- 
construction plans of all countries. And this is 
the reason that the most careful study should 
be given to it. Professor Lippincott voices this 
need when he says : 

What is demanded in our reconstruction program is 
machinery not only for the study of particular industries, 
and of particular activities, but also of the relations of 
industries to industries, and social activities of important 



*The Earl of Cromer and Others, After-War Problems, 
p. 14. 



Introduction n 



kinds to other important social activities Our 

goal is the development of the national industrial and social 
interest.* 

There are few so blind that they do not see 
portentous changes ahead, and the thinking 
man must inform himself as to their meaning. 
The whole social structure of our country was 
changed when we entered into the great strug- 
gle to make men free. The scholar in his study, 
the workman at his machine, the woman in the 
home, and our representatives in high places 
are thinking upon the revaluation of man, and 
it will take the united efforts of all these to re- 
construct our social life. 

It is in the hope of helping a little to clarify 
our thinking along these lines that this brief 
study is offered. The maintenance of democracy, 
industrial unrest, the labor of women, the treat- 
ment of the Negro, Americanization, housing, 
education, and the dealing with radicalism are 
problems which touch the life of the nation, and 
which concern us all. IMany of these problems 
should have been solved long ago in a free land, 
but it took a world war to focus national atten- 
tion on them. We can only hope that from 
destruction which well-nigh overwhelmed the 
nations, a better life will arise for the many. 

And this must be the outcome, if the w^ar is 
to be more than *' a mere meaningless blot on 



^Lippincott, Problems of Reconstruction, p. 303. 



12 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

the pages of history." Or in the words of an 
English writer: 

If it (the war) is to mean anything at all for future 
generations, it must be because of what comes out of it, 
and that depends not upon the soldier, but the statesman.* 

That is upon the successful carrying out of 
reconstruction plans rests the value of the great 
struggle. The world not only must be safe for 
democracy, but democracy must be saved. 

REFERENCES 
BOOKS 

Cromer, The Earl of, and Others, After-War Problems, 
The Macmillan Company, 1917. 

Friedman, Elisha M., Labor and Reconstruction in Eu- 
rope, E. P. Button & Company, 19 19. 

Harris, Garrard, Redemption of the Disabled; a Study of 
Programmes of Rehabilitation for the Disabled of War and 
of Industry, D. Appleton and Company, 1919. 

Lippincott, Isaac, Problems of Reconstruction, The Mac- 
millan Company, 191 9. 

Russell, Bertrand, Principles of Social Reconstruction, 
The Century Co., 1917. 

Villiers, Brougham, Britain After the Peace; Revolution 
or Reconstruction, E. P. Button & Company, 1918. 



* Villiers, Britain After the Peace: Revolution or Recon- 
struction, p. 249. 



CHAPTER II 

PRESERVATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL 

TT seems platitudinous to say that the 
"■- democracy for which we fought and came 
off victorious must be maintained, yet insist- 
ence on this point is of vast importance. The 
child grows only by being nurtured, and when he 
reaches manhood, he must still be nourished if 
he is to live. So it is with our social institutions. 
They must be zealously, even jealously guarded 
if they are to abide. 

It is generally recognized that ideals crystal- 
ized into institutions are more readily preserved 
than those that have not been generally accepted 
as forms of human conduct. Democracy is as 
yet hardly more than a catchword with the 
many. While it is true that for nearly a cen- 
tury and a half, we have had at least a partial 
political democracy with our republic — partial 
because of suffrage restrictions upon a large and 
important class^ — it is equally true that we 
have hardly experienced as yet either social or 
industrial democracy. Yet the ideal is with us 
and must be preserved. " Where there is no 
vision, the people perish." We are a long distance 



'Suffrage was granted to women in May, 1920. 
13 



14 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

ahead of the medieval autocracy that ground the 
common man with iron heel, but we are also a 
long distance behind the ideal state where every 
"man is man and master of his fate." Theoreti- 
cally at least, we scout the idea that nine-tenths 
of the people come into the world with bridles 
in their mouths and with saddles on their backs 
while the other tenth come in booted and spurred 
to ride them.^ In actual practice in some quar- 
ters, however, it would seem that such a belief 
still holds. On this account, we see the wisdom 
of insisting upon the preservation of our ideals. 
A representative form of government is not 
enough to insure a happy life to all if industrial 
relations are left unregulated. A man theoreti- 
cally free may be enslaved by the conditions 
under which he lives and works. Men are not 
pawns to be moved over the board by powerful 
hands. Each man should claim the right to 
work out his destiny. Men stood together to 
save the world from rapacious greed and brutal- 
ized power, and they stood shoulder to shoulder. 
Artificial distinctions had no place in a twentieth- 
century army mobilized in a democracy, and they 
should have no place in civil life. There always 
will be distinctions among men. It is only a 
visionary who can see with pleasure a state made 
up of men run in a mold. Differences in type 
lend a zest to society that otherwise would be 
deadly monotonous. Men are not alike physi- 



^ Thayer, Democracy: Discipline: Peace, p. 7. 



Preservation of the Democratic Ideal 15 

cally or mentally ; we do not want them to be. 
They are not born equal now, nor is it likely 
they ever will be. The function of democracy 
is not to try to eradicate such fundamental dif- 
ferences ; it is rather to abolish resulting handi- 
caps, and to extend equal opportunity to all. 
That is the task. Each man born into the world 
should have a chance to develop himself, and 
enjoy a happy life, so long as his conception of 
happiness does not work hardship to others or 
conflict with the generally accepted standards 
of the community. The degenerate finds happi- 
ness in drunkenness, but, since, in this state, he 
may be a social menace, he must be checked. 
Such divergence of standards of what constitutes 
a happy life complicates the problem. 

" The world must be made safe for democracy " 
has been ringing in our ears, and one often won- 
ders how much it means to the many who say 
it and the many who hear it, because of our 
varying interpretations of the word *' democ- 
racy." To some it means no " Jim Crow " cars 
for anyone ; to others a Packard for everybody ; 
to some free lunches; to others an invitation to 
the President's receptions ; to some it means a 
loafer's paradise ; to others a chance to work in 
contentment. There seems to be no unanimity 
of opinion in regard to the elements constituting 
that happy state known as '* democracy ; " yet 
there is general agreement that such a state, 
whatever it means, is desirable, and it was worth 
fighting for. 



1 6 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

Since, therefore, the word is nothing without 
its content, it becomes our task to read into the 
word a meaning that will find general accept- 
ance, and then urge upon all the preservation of 
the ideal as a sacred trust. 

It requires no special penetration to see that 
unrest is about us on all sides. Dissatisfaction 
is rampant. No one feels settled. Everyone 
was looking for a better world to live in, and the 
expected change has not come. Unless it does 
come, we are likely to settle down into what 
Kingsley called " dull discontent too stale for 
words." 

With much emphasis on the freedom of op- 
pressed peoples, and the establishment of liberty 
in the world, as a justification of the war, it was 
inevitable that there should be much heart- 
searching among men in regard to their own 
status. If freedom and self-determination are a 
desideratum for men who have suffered under op- 
pressive forms of government, why is not a fuller 
participation in all that liberty implies good for 
all men? A people theoretically free may be 
virtually enslaved, as millions of Americans are 
discovering for the first time, and the discovery 
is making them restless. Work alone, even with 
high wages, does not satisfy the men and women 
who are questioning. They want to share more 
largely in something — they hardly know what 
— that gives an added significance to life. 

Those who are in control must heed even the 
halting expression of discontent, if revolution in 



Preservation of the Democratic Ideal 17 

the future is to be averted. It is not sufficient to 
answer that we have the greatest democracy on 
earth, and it is an ingrate w^ho is not satisfied. 
Empty forms can never satisfy people who have 
once begun to think. And the statement that the 
average American has commenced to think about 
his station in Hfe is not open to question. No 
more will he accept the doctrine that the Giver 
of All Good elected the majority to be hewers 
of w^ood and drawers of water throughout time 
for the benefit of heaven's pets. And the demo- 
cratic ideal furnishes the background for his 
heresy. 

The machinery for helping men to happiness 
is at hand, and the nation would be stupid indeed 
not to use it. It is idle to say that discontent 
with the expression of democracy we have is due 
wholly to the war. It is not. The war, how- 
ever, has served to emphasize anew^ our limita- 
tions, and to point out the necessity for building 
to meet the needs of the new era which is upon 
us. Even before the war was thought possible, 
Woodrow Wilson said : 

We are facing the necessity of fitting a new social organ- 
ization, as we did once fit the old organization, to the happi- 
ness and prosperity of the great body of citizens; for we 
are conscious that the new order of society has not been 
made to fit and provide the convenience and prosperity of 
the average man.* 

The average man, the common man, the man 
on the street has made himself heard at last, 



* Wilson, The New Freedom, p. 4. 



1 8 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

and he it is who will save democracy to the na- 
tion by making it fulfil its function. 

Social unrest is not new in the world, but 
it is more widespread than ever before. The 
hitherto unheeded millions are asserting their 
right to greater participation in this good thing 
called democracy, which, though unformulated, 
means to them something more than power 
to cast a vote. Special privilege can thrive with 
universal suffrage. Men are seeking an entrance 
into that larger democracy which is industrial 
and social as well as political. It is, therefore, 
of the gravest importance that the democracy in 
which they trust shall not fail them. There can 
be no more important phase of reconstructive 
effort than that which seeks to preserve a national 
ideal. 

It becomes our first task then to put into 
words a general conception of what is implied 
in the institution known as democracy, and which 
we insist must be maintained if all other recon- 
structive effort is to be of any avail. 

As a starting-point in our quest for true democ- 
racy, we may well adopt Professor Tufts' defini- 
tion that, 

The finest and largest meaning of democracy is that all 
people should share as largely as possible in the best life.* 

Of course the standard of the best life will vary 
somewhat from generation to generation, but the 
ideal that all the people should share it would 



^ Tufts, Our Democracy, p. 268. 



Preservation of the Democratic Ideal 19 

remain the same. Professor Tufts points out that 
society for a long period of time acted on the 
assumption that only a favored few were entitled 
to the good things of life, and that this aristo- 
cratic view gives way slowly to the democratic 
belief that all should share in them. Much of the 
unrest of the present is due to the persistence of 
the aristocratic view. Those who enjoy special 
privileges relinquish them slowly. The doctrine 
of the divine right to hold what we have, and to 
have what we hold, dies hard. An upper class 
can easily justify to itself its elevation, and believe 
It to be meritorious. Those who are discriminated 
against have another perspective, and when 
aroused, resent the idea of an inherent inequality. 
History furnishes many illustrations of this 
throughout the centuries that have gone. 
Peasants' revolts, a French revolution, Chartists' 
riots, are merely names for past popular upheav- 
als, which show the reaching out after liberty in 
different ages, and the slow groping after the 
democratic ideal. 

In modern times, the industrial revolution has 
been instrumental in accentuating distinctions 
between classes. The necessity for capital to 
purchase machines led to the growth of an em- 
ploying class of machine owners, and a non- 
owning working class of machine tenders. But 
at the same time, this very condition, by empha- 
sizing class differences, led to much sane reflection 
upon the inherent rights of men, and tended to 
the development of the democratic principle 



20 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

which we are seeking to understand and to 
maintain. 

One of the most brilliant and satisfying of the 
recent attempts to find the content of the term 
" democracy " is that of Dr. Albion W. Small of 
the University of Chicago, in an article on " Some 
Structural Material for the Idea, Democracy."^ 
He sees in the " self-realization of persons 
. . . . the measure of value for all human 
programs." This clearly should be the under- 
lying purpose in all reconstruction work. Again, 
he holds that, 

. . . . there is no social guaranty worth trusting in a 
society which is not convinced that the measure of meanness 
or of merit in men's actions is what they import for human 
beings." 

Still further he makes explicit his understand- 
ing of the purpose of life when he insists that, 

The first task of civilization is to secure food enough to 
sustain life. The next task is to make life worthy enough 
to be wortli sustaining.^ 

The second is pre-eminently the task of recon- 
struction, and in this our democracy will not fail. 

Since we accept participation in the best life, 
or the insuring of a worthy life to all as the prime 
desideratum in a democracy, it only remains for 
us to establish some standard of what constitutes 



^ Small, The American Journal of Sociology, November, 
1919, and January, 1920. 
''Ibid., November, 1919, pp. 270-271. 
^Ibid., November, 1919, p. 270. 



Preservation of the Democratic Ideal 21 

the best life. Then we shall have certain definite 
things to insist upon and to perpetuate. And here 
we can do no better than still to follow the lead 
of Dr. Small who many years ago formulated a 
standard^ of a normal life to be secured by the 
gratification of certain desires growing out of the 
wants of the average man. This is a sixfold classi- 
fication of human desires, and it seems to be 
sufficiently comprehensive to include everything 
that is necessary to the establishment of the best 
life. It Is the gratification of these desires in 
reasonable degree, that will give us men capable 
of functioning in a real democracy. The classi- 
fication is as follows : 

/. The gratification of desires connected with 
health. — Every normal human being desires to be 
physically fit, and he must have a measure of 
health if he is to do his share of the world's work 
with comfort and satisfaction. A physically 
broken man cannot be an efficient producer, and 
he is on this account a loss to society. Social 
obstacles to health should therefore be removed. 
Unwholesome living conditions prevail even in 
our most enlightened states. Many children are 
doomed before birth to disease that should not 
be permitted to exist, and many young people 
have to grow up under conditions which sap 
their strength. There is no unreason in asking 
that these conditions be changed. The desire for 



^ Small and Vincent, An Introduction to tlic Study of So- 
ciety, p. 175. Small, General Sociology, chap, xxxii. 



2 2 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

a good body is a perfectly normal one and should 
be gratified. Good health makes for the best life. 

2. The gratification of desires connected zvith 
economic needs or the accumulation of ivealth. — 
Every human being needs a chance to make a 
decent living. This does not mean that society 
owes him a fortune ; it does mean that a man 
is only half a man who has no money to buy 
bread. To eat from a pauper's table, or to jog 
along from door to door in quest of food and 
clothes, is spiritually shriveling and should not 
be the lot of any citizen in a democracy. An 
opportunity to be economically able to satisfy the 
elemental needs of life is surely a right among 
free people. There are likely to be differences 
of opinion in regard to the best methods of secur- 
ing this freedom, but there should be unanimity 
in regard to its desirability. 

J. The gratification of desires connected zvith 
the social instincts. — Normal men want the stim- 
ulus of association with their kind, and it is 
necessary to their development. Without oppor- 
tunity for legitimate exercise this desire may 
readily become anti-social. The hermit is an 
abnormality, fortunately rare. Less rare, but 
equally to be deplored, is the one whose only 
social pleasure is found in bestial haunts with 
others like himself. Between these two extremes, 
we find a rational craving for the spiritual joys 
of friendship, and that society is doomed to decay 
Avhich does not recognize the legitimacy of this, 
and make wise provision for its satisfaction. 



Preservation of the Democratic Ideal 23 

4. The gratification of wants, emanating from 
the desire to know, which exists in the breast of 
every normal man. — It is true that this is found 
in varying degrees of strength in different people, 
and manifests itself in varying forms. A man 
must know if he would do. The knowledge desire 
is a much larger thing than schools alone can 
satisfy, yet formal education is a means to that 
end. Knowledge truly is power, and man must 
have opportunity to acquire the phase of it that 
will unfold the world for him, if he is to enter 
into the satisfactions of democracy. 

5. The gratification of wants connected with 
the desire for the aesthetic. — Normal people crave 
the beautiful in their lives. The fact that many 
conceptions of beauty are crude and barbaric, 
does not negate their existence. Music, art, liter- 
ature, make their appeal in varying ways, and 
their leavening influence is needed if man is to 
rise to his full height in a democracy. The desire 
for beauty in life is omnipresent, as pitiful 
attempts at personal adornment, and pathetic 
efforts to participate in the arts, testify. Taste is 
a matter of cultivation ; love of the beautiful is 
innate. 

6. The gratification of wants cotinected with 
the desire for rightness. — The normal man recog- 
nizes obligation and has a sense of duty. He 
desires to get in touch with forces outside of self, 
and he seeks a guiding principle in his life. This 
is quite apart from adherence to religious dogma. 
It is a desire found in the savage and in the saint; 



24 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

and society must recognize its normality. Like 
all the other wants of man, this varies with the 
individual, but it is found in everyone. 

If we would preserve our democracy then, we 
must see to it that life is made worth while for 
all the people instead of the favored few. This is 
the only kind of democracy that is worth pre- 
serving, the only kind that should triumph in the 
world. The extension of opportunity to all the 
people to enjoy the satisfactions enumerated 
above is possible in any society, and should cer- 
tainly be attainable in a land where freedom is 
the watchword. Democracy with all its failures 
is the ideal of the twentieth century, and the 
preservation of all its forms — political, social, 
industrial — should be the first charge upon 
reconstruction. Complete democratization would 
render unnecessary all other reconstructive work. 
The preservation of the democratic ideal will do 
much toward rendering such work effective. The 
torch held on high will light the dark way. 

REFERENCES 
BOOKS 

Cromer, The Earl of, and Others, After-War Problems, 
The Macmillan Company, 19 17. 

Schafer, Joseph, and Cleveland, Frederick A., (Editors), 
Democracy in Reconstruction, Houghton Mifflin Company, 
1919. 

Small, Albion W., and Vincent, George E., An Introduc- 
tion to the Study of Society, American Book Company, 1894. 

Small, Albion W., General Sociology, The University of 
Chicago Press, 1905. 



Preservation of the Democratic Ideal 25 



Thayer, William Roscoe, Democracy: Discipline: Peace, 
Houghton Mifflin Company, 19 19. 

Tufts James H., Our Democracy, Henry Holt and Com- 
pany, 1917. 

Wilson, Woodrow, The New Freedom, Doubleday, Page 
& Company, 1913. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLE 

Small, Albion W., "Some Structural Material for the 
Idea, Democracy," The American Journal of Sociology, 
November, 1919, and January, 1920. 



CHAPTER III 
INDUSTRIAL UNREST 

WITHOUT doubt, the most difficult problem 
awaiting solution in the world today is the 
adjustment of the differences existing between 
capital and labor. That differences do exist is 
apparent to everyone. On all sides one hears 
mutterings of a discontent that has assumed 
world proportions. It is no local or temporary 
condition ; all the nations are facing it. This 
indeed is the problem of reconstruction par excel- 
lence, and is recognized as such by all the coun- 
tries which are trying to restore normal life to 
their populations. The industrial army which 
performed such valiant service behind the lines 
in war time is determined to share in the better 
life that peace promised. The adjustment of the 
fighting armies to the demands of civil life is 
simple when compared with the effort to bring 
about industrial peace. Industrial difficulties are 
old ; they are merely accentuated now. They have 
been accumulating with the years, and have only 
recently assumed serious proportions. A con- 
dition may justly be called serious when millions 
of men laboring with set faces are ready to fight 
for what they consider their rights. It is only 

26 



Industrial Unrest 27 

hopeless, however, when unreason prevails, and 
this is quite as likely to be on the side of capital 
as of labor. Neither side has a monopoly on 
reason. In the struggle, labor is heavily handi- 
capped by poverty and ignorance as well as by 
indifferent leadership. It is thus a poor match 
for the wealth, intelligence, and expert leaders of 
the employing class.^ This fact creates additional 
bitterness among employees, because it is a situa- 
tion that does not spell equality of opportunity. 
It should be borne in mind that the returned 
soldiers are not directly responsible for the labor 
situation at the present time, although their sud- 
den return to industry must be considered. In 
this country alone 4,000,000 young men were 
taken out of industry to form an army, and their 
places had to be filled by men who were left 
behind, and by women. A labor demand in excess 
of the supply was thereby created, and owing to 
the necessity of speeding up in the production of 
war supplies, unusually high wages were offered 
in the war industries. This in turn attracted 
workers from other fields, such as household and 
farm labor, where the shortage, particularly in 
the former, is still keenly felt. Even demobiliza- 
tion did not restore the balance. 

What is true in this respect in the United 
States is doubly true in Europe where many more 



^A notable example of this is to be seen in the unsuccess- 
ful steel strike of the autumn of 19 19. 



2 8 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

men for a much longer period of time were with- 
drawn from industry. 

With the passing of the old personal relations 
between workers and their employers which 
existed before the days of great machines, came 
the beginning of that class hostility which is so 
marked today. The production of material things 
has gone on so rapidly that employers have ap- 
parently not had time to consider the human 
element in this production. They have been 
interested only in output. But this, we now 
know, is a shortsighted policy, since the highest 
point in output cannot be maintained without 
the cooperation of the workers. They may be 
driven to the machines by fear of starvation, but 
no managerial mandate can compel the maximum 
of exertion. 

As the working people rise in the scale of 
intelligence, they become more insistent on a 
share in the determination of the conditions under 
which they work. This is the price of enlighten- 
ment, but believers in democracy should find no 
price too high to pay for raising the general level 
of intelligence. Before there was a world war, 
free labor was thinking its own thoughts. That 
millions of men in any country should be forever 
willing to fetch and carry at the behest of others 
indicates a state of mental stagnation that must 
surely make for national decay sooner or later. 
If a voice in the control of government is worth 
fighting for, why not a voice in the control of 
work, which touches the average man much more 



Industrial Unrest 29 

closely? Such thoughts were agitating the 
laborers in Europe before the summer of 1914. 
but like other loyal men they put them aside for 
the period of the war and devoted themselves 
exclusively to the pursuit of victory. 

In America a similar state of afifairs existed. 
The remarkable industrial development since the 
Civil War was made possible by an abundance 
of raw materials, an oversupply of cheap labor 
from Europe, and a genius for business enter- 
prise in the native blood. Some of the world's 
greatest fortunes were amassed here during this 
period, and serious-minded workingmen have 
tried to discover any good reason why the men 
who furnished the capital should get so much, 
while the men who performed the la1)or got so 
little. 

They had not found a reason satisfactory to 
themselves when the war broke out, and they 
were called to the colors for either military or 
industrial service. Their vigorous response not 
only added greatly to the dignity of their labor, 
but it also roused many thinking people, includ- 
ing some employers, to a belief in the justice of 
at least some of their contentions. One does not 
need to be a propagandist for any ** ism " to admit 
that the hardships of industry have fallen with 
undue severity upon those who are least able to 
make their own terms with the world, that is, 
upon the ignorant, the young, and the weak. It 
took a world war to make these classes articu- 
late — and articulate because the ever-present 



30 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

fear of losing a job had vanished in a day with the 
surplus of unemployed. It was formerly thought 
that our modern system of industry would not be 
workable without a margin of unemployed. 

A sense of security in one's position makes for 
independence in some, while in others it makes 
for tyranny. In any case, the cringing attitude 
of the whipped cur is no longer observable in 
labor. This is disconcerting to masterful spirits 
who in the past have enjoyed much distinction 
from their power over their fellow-men, due to 
the ease with which they could replace dis- 
charged workmen. Now the laborer is taking a 
turn at dictating terms, and he is not showing 
any better spirit than the former dictator. Being 
in the saddle gives a man great assurance, but 
it does not enable him to win the race over a 
powerful automobile, although he can win over 
those on foot. It is on this account that the 
small employer is at a disadvantage in dealing 
with labor when compared with the great cor- 
poration. Thus is added another element to the 
general unrest. It seems as if the whole world 
had slipped from its moorings, but if it gets 
better dockage at new ports, the universe will be 
the gainer. And to secure better dockage is the 
business of reconstruction. 

The labor situation in England^ throws much 
light on the problem in general, and English 



^Bloomfield, Management and Men. (Contains valuable 
information on English undertakings.) 



Industrial Unrest 31 

experience should be of great value to us in 
reconstruction plans. 

Everyone knows about the famous " three 
years' truce " which organized labor made with 
the government, permitting the waiving of cer- 
tain Trade Union regulations for that period in 
order to aid in the prosecution of the war. The 
unions which have had great power in England 
for years, agreed to the *' dilution of labor " or the 
use of a certain percentage of unskilled labor 
under the direction of skilled. They also agreed 
not to limit output, which had been the curse of 
English industry for a generation. When em- 
ployers were thus freed from former tyrannous 
restrictions, and permitted to operate their plants 
twenty-four hours a day, the country entered 
upon an era of unprecedented production, while 
the workers received higher wages than ever 
before. Everyone worked at top speed, and 
labor leaders were high in the councils of the 
nation. Patriotism was the lubricant that made 
the wheels go round. But when the war ended, 
and the question of the restoration of pre-war 
Trade Union restrictions on industry came up, 
dissatisfaction was felt on all sides. Everyone 
knew this would be so. An astute observer and 
friend of labor like Mr. Sidney Webb^ never 
believed that it would be possible to return to 
the old ways in spite of government promises. 
It seemed extremely doubtful that employers. 



*Webb, The Restoration of Trade Union Conditions. 



32 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

having reached a state of industrial efficiency 
hitherto undreamed of, would consider for one 
moment a return to the old methods ; nor would 
the rank and file of unskilled labor be willing to 
relinquish its grip on high wages. A compromise 
then seemed to be the only solution ; but to arrive 
at this compromise is quite another question. 
Plans by the hundred have been proposed, for 
the idealist is always ready to build a Utopia. 

The English Minister of Reconstruction out- 
lined four necessary changes^ if the results of the 
war were to be overcome. These are: (i) better 
cooperation between capital and labor, (2) better 
conditions of life, (3) better training, and (4) 
better industrial methods. Obviously, reforms as 
far-reaching as these cannot be effected in a day, 
nor by the genius of any one man. It is there- 
fore to be expected that many different groups 
should be ready with proposals along economic, 
political, or sociological lines, and varying from 
conservative to extremely radical. But there 
seems to be a general feeling, regardless of the 
shade of belief, that industrial unrest can be 
eliminated only by some extension of control to 
the industrial workers. The best known of these 
plans are found in the Whitley Reports^ in which 
is advocated the establishment of joint, standing 



* Friedman, Labor and Reconstruction in Europe, p. 23. 

'Reprints of the Reports of the Whitley Committee may 
be obtained from the Bureau of Industrial Research, 289 
Fourth Ave., New York. 



Industrial Unrest 33 

industrial councils and shop committees for all 
industries. Mr. J. H. Whitley is chairman of the 
Reconstruction Ministry's subcommittee on the 
relation between employer and employed. 

What the Magna Carta signifies in the history of political 
democracy, the Whitley Reports may come to mean in the 
future industrial democracy.* 

Industrial councils are designed to standardize 
the relations between employers and employed, 
and to give workmen a dignity in industry such 
as they have never before enjoyed. Neither 
the right to strike nor to lockout is interfered 
with, but the machinery to prevent such waste- 
ful stoppage of work is provided. 

England realizes as never before the necessity 
for utilizing the knowledge and experience of her 
workingmen, and for this end to establish some 
form of real partnership in production. Her 
experience should be of great value to the United 
States where unrest is quite as disturbing, 
although conditions of production are not so 
chaotic, and limitation of output by union regu- 
lation not such a bugbear to capital. 

The war taught England the national impor- 
tance of the laboring classes. Without the whole- 
hearted cooperation of labor, the war would not 
have been won. Labor knows this, but is hardly 
strong enough to make its demands felt even 
with such an advantage. 

In discussing the labor situation, it is well to 



^Friedman, Labor and Reconstruction in Europe, p. 141. 



34 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

bear in mind that unrest is a symptom, not a 
disease, and the causes of the trouble should be 
sought. These are somewhat vague in the minds 
of most people, but it seems clear that they have 
to do chiefly with some voice in control or owner- 
ship of the means of production. And we may as 
well recognize the fact that general industrial 
unrest will not disappear until the causes are 
removed. Men ask for higher wages and shorter 
hours, and when these demands are granted, 
peacefully or after a fight, they are still discon- 
tented, and ask for still further wage increases 
and still shorter hours, when what they really 
want is not specific dollars or hours but power to 
determine fair conditions for themselves, and, 
moreover, they are going to have this power 
sooner or later. A reconstructed America will 
have to give it to them. It is not thinkable that 
millions of dissatisfied men, yearly increasing in 
intelligence, will much longer continue to accept 
scraps from the master's table. 

The present strike-and-win or the strike-and- 
lose method throws the burden of increased 
wages on the public instead of on the profits 
of business where it belongs. It is only by 
increased production that capital, without eating 
its own head off, can take care of wage demands. 
Without this, employers have recourse to price- 
raising which affects all consumers including the 
workmen who started the ball rolling. And so 
the vicious circle of high prices is completed. 
But this needs no exposition, since it is familiar 



Industrial Unrest ^S 



to every thinking person in the country who sees 
his dollar shrinking almost daily. 

It is possible of course to write down the con- 
spicuous grievances of labor, and indicate the 
weapons it uses in its effort to correct abuses. 
Then it is our task to see wherein the public 
can help. We have in this country, no recon- 
struction ministry, but efforts of various kinds 
are being made to solve the problems. 

Many say that the interests of capital and 
labor are fundamentally the same, but it is doubt- 
ful if this is true. They may even be diametri- 
cally opposed, yet they may be made to approach 
each other, by the exercise of wisdom on both 
sides. The laborer wants to get as much as he 
can for the least expenditure of effort, while the 
capitalist wants to get the most labor for the 
least expenditure of wages commensurate with 
profitable service. Of course when there is a 
scarcity of labor it is an economic folly to wear 
out a man, but when there is a surplus, this need 
not concern the employer as an employer, though 
it should concern him greatly as a man. A sur- 
plus of 5,000 waiting at the Stockyards gates 
in Chicago made the workers lose their strike 
of 1904.^ 

Through Trade Unions, the workmen have 
been trying for more than a generation to equal- 
ize their disabilities, and some of the bitterest 

^Parker, "The Labor Policy of the American Trusts," 
The Atlantic Monthly, February, 1920, p. 225. 



36 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

fights between labor and capital have been occa- 
sioned by their insistence on recognition of the 
union. Most employers are at heart more or less 
hostile to Trade Unions ; probably all would be 
glad to be free from them ; yet some have ac- 
cepted them graciously enough, and work har- 
moniously with them. Employers object not so 
much to the workmen's right to organize as to 
the methods they have adopted. But labor has 
only taken a leaf from the books of Big Business. 
No just person should question labor's right to 
organize for self-protection and self-determina- 
tion while capital has that privilege. Yet every- 
one must deplore the lust for power that is 
evidenced on both sides. The great corporations 
are able to checkmate the unions, and, as has 
been said before in this chapter, this is a cause 
of widespread unrest. It is an important cause 
of recent bitter struggles in certain basic indus- 
tries of the country in which the workmen have 
failed. 

The Trade Union may not be the highest form 
of labor organization, but it has thus far been 
the most effective. It has been able to secure 
greatly improved conditions for its members, and 
incidentally, for all labor. Shorter hours, higher 
wages, and better sanitation have followed union 
agitation. Collective bargaining has put the 
worker on a more independent footing. The 
individual cannot make very good terms for him- 
self even when there is a scarcity of labor. He 
has no effective argument. The union has the 



Industrial Unrest 37 

strike with which to enforce its demands. It is 
most unfortunate that the strike has to be resorted 
to, since misery and disaster frequently follow 
in its trail ; yet, as is the case with nations, war 
seems at times to be inevitable. By this method, 
organized labor has secured for itself quite gen- 
erally an eight-hour day either in fact or as a 
basic day upon which to reckon payment for 
overtime. But now that the eight-hour day has 
been achieved in well-unionized trades, we hear 
echoes of a call for six hours, and the more daring 
spirits whisper four. At least one successful 
British manufacturer. Lord Leverhulme, has 
established a six-hour day, and believes that, 

. . . . it is already applicable without loss to all those 
industries in which the cost of production in overhead 
charges is equal in amount to the cost of wages. But in 
most workshops and factories, the cost of production in the 
form of overhead charges is double or more the cost of 
wages. In all these latter, the six-hour day can be applied 
forthwith with enormous gains in cost, of production, pro- 
vided the supply of raw material and of labor is available, 
and the demand for products exists.^ 

This plan, it may be said, presupposes at least 
two shifts of workers per day. That is, machinery 
works longer hours and human beings fewer. 

The desire for more leisure is quite general 
among the workers. Only recently our own 
miners asked for a thirty-hour week. If, by means 
of a shorter day, production can be increased, 



* Leverhulme, The Six-Hour Day and Other Industrial 
Questions, p. 19. 



38 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

or at least the present rate maintained, then the 
shorter day should be welcomed as an economic 
good. If, in addition to this, it gives us a 
healthier and happier body of workers, it should 
be hailed as an inestimable social gain. Lord 
Leverhulme's enthusiasm for the six-hour day, 
however, has not yet proved contagious. And 
it may well be questioned if a shorter day, even 
when coupled with high wages, would prove a 
solvent for the present industrial unrest. The 
past does not furnish proof that it ever has done 
so. In the passing of a century, the work day 
has shrunken from sixteen to fourteen, to twelve, 
to ten, to eight hours^ with a steadily accumulat- 
ing discontent; but this cannot be considered 
entirely deplorable. A stupid content would give 
us no progress. A wholesome dissatisfaction with 
unfavorable conditions of life has brought the 
world to its present state of development. 

The problem of reconstruction, then, is not 
so much to attempt to eliminate unrest directly 
as to endeavor to make the best things in life 
more possible of attainment by the wage-earners 
who are first of all men with the instincts^ of 
men. As machine operatives, they have lost the 
pleasure of accomplishment without which work 
becomes drudgery. An industrial system which 



*In government positions, in many business houses, in 
strongly organized trades, and, at present, in much casual 
work. 

^Tead, Instincts in Industry. 



Industrial Unrest 39 

requires nine men to make a needle, and eighty 
men to make a pair of shoes, gives meager oppor- 
tunity for individual skill to assert itself. Shorter 
hours and higher wages alone cannot recompense 
the worker who has, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, sacrificed his creative impulses in order 
to live.^ The more intelligent will still crave self- 
expression. And it is just here that a reconstruc- 
tion program may be turned to practical value 
by proposing a feasible plan whereby the workers 
themselves shall have some voice in determining 
the conditions under which they shall work. 
Representation of some kind must be accorded 
them if the revolutionary aspects of unrest are 
to be eliminated. 

Many plans have already been evolved for 
democratic control. One illustration may be 
given here as an indication of the possibilities 
open to employers. An old and honored firm in 
Cincinnati, after thirty years' experience with 
profit-sharing, and two with shop committees, 
has received into its directorate three factory 
employees, elected by their fellow-workers. The 
total number of directors is twelve. Democratic 
representation- will doubtless do much to create 
contentment among workmen, when added to all 
the other desirable conditions for which they 
have been striving^. 



^Marot, The Creative Impulse in Industry. (Contains an 
excellent discussion of this subject.) 

'Bloomfield, Shop Management. (Contains detailed dis- 
cussion of numerous experiments.) 



40 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

The restoration of personal relations between 
employer and employee to take the place of 
mechanical contact would do much to stem the 
tide of unrest. Industrial workers, skilled or un- 
skilled, permanent or casual, are human beings 
with the same hopes and ambitions as those in 
more favored social circles. They want to be 
treated as responsible men, and, according to 
some, industrial partnerships will gratify this 
desire, while others have more elaborate pro- 
posals. 

So many elements enter into the solution of 
the industrial problem that it is instructive to get 
the viewpoint^ of a manual laborer who is also 
a man of education. He says : '* There is first 
of all, a very pressing need for more honesty, 
charity, and reverence in the world today than 
ever before," and, "There can be no social life 
worthy the name without mutual trust, and no 
mutual trust without mutual honesty." Again 
he says : " In reality, all labor, whether of head 
or hand, is simply a service, and it is a dishonest 
service if you exact more than you give, whether 
in service returned or money paid." He sums up 
his beliefs with : " Teach all men to serve rightly 
real art, real literature, real science, real labor, and 
share all these with them, and you need not fear 
they will tear your tapestries, loot your libraries. 



* Booker, "Industrial Partnership," Yale Review, January, 
1920. 
'Wight, "The Human Factor," The Atlantic Monthly, 
January, 1920, p. 26. 



Industrial Unrest 41 

or fling sand into the wheels of your machinery, 
industrial or social, much less, crush human life." 
Each country is seeking its own solution of its 
labor problem. In England, the Labor Party in 
Parliament seems to offer the best method of 
removing the causes of unrest; in Russia, the 
Soviet is regarded as the ideal scheme ; while in 
the United States we must look to a satisfactory 
plan yet to be devised whether in accordance 
with the suggestions of ex-President Wilson's 
Industrial Conference,^ or some others, remains 
to be seen. The final oflfering of the ex-Presi- 
dent's Conference is twofold according to Mr. 
William L. Chenery. 

In the first place, a singularly ingenious system of col- 
lective bargaining and of voluntary arbitration is suggested. 
In the second place, a helpful statement of industrial prin- 
ciples is made." 

The effort to solve the industrial problem is 
one that merits the cooperation of all classes of 
people — the workers themselves, the capitalists, 
and the public. Reconstruction has no greater 
task. If discussion can awaken interest that will 
lead to action, it is not in vain. The New World 
has the opportunity to lead in industrial reform. 
If it does not achieve leadership, it can at least 
follow the best that other countries have to offer. 



*A full report of the Conference which convened January 
12, 1920, may be found in a supplement to the Survey of 
March 27, 1920, p. 819. 

'Chenery, "A Constitution for Industry: The President's 
Conference Reports," The Survey, March 27, 1920, p. 805. 



42 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

But while urging action, we must heed the wis- 
dom of a life-long student of labor problems when 
he says : 

The solution lies not in abolishing discontent, but in direct- 
ing it into a hopeful channel, and above all, and chief of all, 
in recognizing that the solution is to be found not so much 
in conditions outside of ourselves as in a stirring of quali- 
ties of mind and character within ourselves.^ 



REFERENCES 
BOOKS 

Bloomfield, Daniel, Shop Management, The H. W. Wil- 
son Company, 1919. 

Bloomfield, Meyer, Management and Men, The Century 
Co., 1919- 

Commons, John R., Industrial Goodwill, McGraw-Hill 
Book Company, 19 19. 

Friedman, Elisha M., Labor and Reconstruction in Eu- 
rope, E. P. Button & Company, 191 9. 

Gompers, Samuel, Labor and the Common Welfare, E. P. 
Button & Company, 1919. 

Hoxie, Robert Franklin, Trade Unionism in the United 
States, B. Appleton and Company, 1917. 

Kellogg, Paul U., and Gleason, Arthur H., British Labor 
and the War, Boni and Liveright, 1919. 

King, W. L. MacKenzie, Industry and Humanity, Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company, 1918, 

Leverhulme, Lord, The Six-Hour Day and Other Indus- 
trial Questions, Henry Holt and Company, 19 19. 

Lippincott, Isaac, Problems of Reconstruction, The Mac- 
millan Company, 1919. 



^Laughlin, "The Solution of the Labor Problem," Scrib- 
ner's Magazine, March, 1920, p. 312. 



Industrial Unrest 43 



Maclver, R. M., Labor in the Changing World, E. P. 
Button & Company, 1919. 

Marot, Helen, The Creative Impulse in Industry, E. P. 
Button & Company, 1918. 

Schafer, Joseph, and Cleveland, Frederick A., (Editors), 
Democracy in Reconstruction, Houghton Mifflin Company, 
1919. 

Tead, Ordvvay, Instincts in Industry, Houghton Mifflin 
Company, 1918. 

Webb, Sidney, The Restoration of Trade Union Condi- 
tions, W. B. Huebsch, 1917. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Booker, John Manning, "Industrial Partnership," Yale 
Revieiv, January, 1920. 

Chenery, William L., "A Constitution for Industry: The 
President's Conference Reports," The Survey, March 27, 
1920. 

Crovvther, Samuel, "The Fetish of Industrial Bemocracy," 
World's Work, November, 1919. 

Frankfurter, Felix, " Law and Order," Yale Revieiv, Jan- 
uary, 1920. 

Gleason, Arthur, "One Year of Reconstruction: A Sum- 
ming Up of British Industrial Bevelopments Since the Re- 
turn of the Coalition to Power," The Survey, February 7, 
1920. 

Hodges, Frank, "Workers' Control: The Case for Self- 
Government Put Forth by the British Miners," The Sur- 
vey, January 3, 1920. 

Laughlin, J. Laurence, " The Solution of the Labor Prob- 
lem," Scribner's Magazine, March 1920. 

Parker, Carleton H., "The Labor Policy of the American 
Trusts," The Atlantic Monthly, February, 1920. 

Report of the Industrial Conference, (called by the Presi- 
dent). Supplement to The Survey, March 27, 1920. 

Seager, Henry R., "Needs of Industry versus Bemands 
of Organized Labor," The Survey, January 3, 1920. 

Wight, Carol, "The Human Factor," The Atlantic Month- 
ly, January, 1920. 



CHAPTER IV 
WOMAN'S LABOR 

IT MIGHT seem at first glance that the ques- 
tion of woman's labor could well be discussed 
under the more general heading of industrial 
unrest, and that the difficulties and needs of wage- 
earners, wherever found, would be the same irre- 
spective of sex. In a way this is true; yet in 
other ways, the problem of woman's labor, both 
here and in other English-speaking countries, is 
quite distinct, and merits separate treatment. The 
reasons for this latter view are not hard to dis- 
cover. In the first place, although women as a 
class have for generations been wage-earners, 
women as individuals are transients in industry, 
and give to their employment a lack of per- 
manence that discourages the inclusion of their 
needs in the general labor programs of men, 
except in a more or less philanthropic sense. 
This, at least, was the pre-war situation. An 
overwhelming majority of the girls who enter 
industry at fourteen or sixteen years of age 
or thereabouts, leave it in about five years 
to marry. That is, the apprenticeship that 
might be expected to give proficiency is prac- 
tically wasted, since the work is regarded as 

44 



Woman's Labor 45 

a temporary makeshift anyway, while the real 
occupation of life comes with marriage. The 
fact that great numbers of married women re- 
enter industry is lost sight of by young girls 
looking forward to the supposed leisure of 
domestic life. Yet the census of 1910 showed that 
one in every four of our wage-earning women 
was married. Such a mental attitude as this 
situation seems to indicate, does not make for 
the class consciousness that develops efficiency 
and brings improved conditions. 

I have said that the foregoing is true in the 
English-speaking countries, because a somewhat 
different order prevails in the continental coun- 
tries, although their need for consideration is 
equally great. There the factory system has not 
developed in just the same way that it has in 
England and America since the great inventions 
of the eighteenth century. 

In the second place, we consider woman's labor 
as a question apart because an overwhelming 
majority of women workers are young, and the 
preservation of their health becomes a matter of 
national importance second to no other. No na- 
tion can afford to jeopardize its future mothers 
and home-makers, although every nation has 
indulged more or less in this form of extrava- 
gance at one time or another. Such reasons alone 
are sufficient to warrant separate discussion of 
woman's labor in any plans for reconstruction. 

We may add to these reasons the present gen- 
eral interest attaching to the subject of woman's 



46 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

labor, owing to the distress caused by a shortage 
of women workers in many quarters, such as 
kitchens ; and also the very recent enfranchise- 
ment of women in many lands. It is estimated 
that there are at present 100,000,000 women 
voters in the world. Women have thus, as never 
before, a voice in determining their own social 
and industrial status, and reconstructionists must 
take cognizance of this. Women workers with 
voting power need no longer be wards of kind- 
hearted statesmen, though kind-hearted states- 
men will still have a function to perform in 
sponsoring legislative reforms demanded by 
women voters, until there are enough women 
legislators to sponsor their own reforms. 

This chapter is not presented as an erudite 
study of the perplexing problem of woman's 
labor with its ramifications into the home and 
into society at large. It is rather a statement of 
some salient facts concerning woman's work 
which should be recognized in any plans for re- 
construction that may be made by the govern- 
ment or private organizations. A wide knowl- 
edge of the conditions of life is essential to social 
solidarity, without which there can be no strong 
and effective democracy. 

Before the outbreak of the war, there were in 
the United States nearly 72,000,000 people gain- 
fully employed. Of these more than 8,000,000 
were women and girls, and this does not include 
the great host working as housekeepers for their 
husbands and children, but receiving no definite 



Woman s Labor 47 

wages. These numbers have been greatly aug- 
mented of late. Since the beginning of the war, 
the employed woman has been with us on every 
side. She has formed a very important element 
in the " man power " of the United States. While 
the war was in progress, women of the so-called 
leisure class in all lands responded heroically to 
the call of country, and went out into what- 
ever fields needed their services. Much of this 
labor was unpaid, or practically unpaid, since it 
had to do with various undertakings of mush- 
room growth carrying on activities induced by 
the war. This labor, like knitting, was ephemeral, 
and, also like knitting, of great subjective value, 
since it gave to the non-workers some apprecia- 
tion of what it means to leave home early and 
stay away all day, and, in the main, perform tasks 
that someone else had planned. The lash of 
economic necessity was never upon these women ; 
they do not know what it means to work for their 
daily bread ; but they would be dull indeed if 
the experience did not help them to interpret to 
themselves and others the needs of self-support- 
ing women. 

Life furnishes ample illustration that common 
experiences lead to community of interest. How 
eagerly housekeepers, behind closed doors, de- 
nounce their maid-servants, and with what avid- 
ity maid-servants denounce their mistresses when 
opportunity arises ! To enter into the lives and 
tasks of others, even temporarily, should, and usu- 



48 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

ally does, widen the outlook of the participant. 
If the volunteer work of women has no more 
permanent result than this, it will not have been 
in vain. Aside from this, of course, it was a val- 
uable contribution to the country's need. 

The women who went out for hire to fill the 
breach in labor were not less patriotic than their 
sisters to whom money mattered not, and it is 
their problems that are most significant, and it 
is their interests that must be safeguarded in 
these days of readjustment. Many women who 
became wage-earners for the first time during 
the war, are remaining in industry either from 
necessity or because economic independence is 
pleasant to them. The present high rate of wages 
leads numbers of married women to work all or 
part time, for, even though the husband is well 
paid, living expenses are so heavy that any addi- 
tion to the family income is welcome. Among 
those struggling for a bare existence, the wife 
must work. Many are questioning the social re- 
sults of the general employment of women, and 
view with some alarm its effects on marriage and 
on family life. The questioning and the alarm, of 
course, are futile, since women are not going to 
be talked back into their homes. A reasonable 
view of the situation is taken by Professor Arthur 
J. Todd, who says : 

Does the pressure for better income mean the permanent 
retention of women in industry? And how will women's 
entrance into industry affect family life? Will it "penalize 



JV Oman's Labor 49 

marriage ? " It will certainly penalize marriage as a trade, 
but it need not destroy marriage and family life in their 
best sense/ 

Adjustment in the trades in which women were 
employed during the war was much more of a 
problem in England than in this country owing 
to the vastly greater number, about a million and 
a half, called to take men's places, and the neces- 
sity of formulating plans in accordance with the 
restoration of Trade Union conditions as agreed 
upon by parliament in the famous truce with 
labor. To get women in proved simpler than to 
get them out. Patriotism coupled with necessity 
swept them into new occupations ; self-interest 
keeps them there. It is of the greatest impor- 
tance to society that women who entered the 
skilled trades, when the men formerly employed 
were serving the colors, should not keep their 
places by means of unfair wage competition with 
men, and that organized men should not close 
the door to women's appeal. 

Mr. Friedman 2 cites the case of reconstruction 
plans for women in the engineering trades as 
typical. There the recommendation is that, 

. . . . men unionists cooperate with women rather 
than compete with them, that unionists should not attempt 
to oust women from the trade, but rather aid in organizing 
them, so as to take out of the employers' hands a whip over 
organized labor. 

Where men had won for themselves, before the 



^Schafer and Cleveland (Editors), Democracy in Recon- 
struction, chap. V, p. 104. 
'Friedman, Labor and Reconstruction in Europe, p. 116. 



50 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

war, advantages of hours and wages, it was only- 
natural that they should resent the loss of these 
through the advent of women. It was wisdom, 
therefore, to seek to bring women into the fold 
of unionism on the same plane with themselves. 
In England the plan known as the '* dilution 
of labor " permitted the use of women in trades 
hitherto closed to them by strong unions of men. 
Women thus had an opportunity to become 
skilled workers, and when the " three years* 
truce " was over, they naturally enough did not 
wish to give up their work. Some plan of adjust- 
ment had to be evolved, and there was a ministry 
of reconstruction to evolve it. It is estimated 
that over 1,750,000 English women worked in 
munitions, a term covering all government manu- 
facture of things essential to the carrying on of 
war, and it is said that 300,000 of these came from 
domestic pursuits, and from small shops. In 
France 450,000 women who had never before 
been in the factories went into the making of 
deadly shells. They were mostly housewives or 
workers on delicate fabrics. Figures are not 
available for the number of munition workers in 
this country, but we know it was several hundred 
thousand, and that the work caused the first great 
exodus from domestic service. In all three coun- 
tries it was women's first opportunity to harvest 
high wages, and they made the most of it. In 
England and France, grim sorrow pushed them 
on to tremendous output, and the money return 
was staggering to them. 



Woman's Labor 51 

In the United States, the first entrance of 
women into munition plants was before our par- 
ticipation in the war, and had only commercial 
aspects. Girls rushed to Bridgeport, Connecti- 
cut,^ for example, with a zeal that well-nigh over- 
whelmed the town. Domestics and clerks and 
girls from the country districts left everything in 
a frantic rush to get employment where wages 
were high, although no adequate preparation had 
been made to receive them. The resulting hous- 
ing situation was deplorable. New-found liberty 
sought to express itself, and in ways not always 
beneficial to the community. The story of Bridge- 
port's response to the new social burdens thus 
thrust upon her is a long one, but the town finally 
measured up to the standards of good citizenship 
in this respect. 

Women had worked in munitions prior to 1914, 
but their labor was inconspicuous. It was not until 
a new market was opened up by the European 
contestants that there was great demand for their 
services. After the United States entered the war, 
and young men were called to the army, a press- 
ing patriotism, as well as financial inducements, 
drew more and more women into munitions and 
other government employment, thus creating 
a shortage in some of the old-time occupations of 
women. Household service still suffers from this 
scarcity of labor and the era of reconstruction is 
not yet at hand. It is true that probably not more 

*Hewes and Walter, Munition Makers. 



52 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

than 20 per cent of the families in this country 
employ domestic helpers, but this important fifth 
had become so dependent on the manner of 
living to which it was habituated that acute dis- 
tress is felt from the necessity for readjustment. 
In England, too, cooks and housemaids walked 
out at the country's call to the number of 100,000,^ 
but now that peace has come they have not 
walked back. Unquestionablv unfavorable condi- 
tions in the households in the past have had much 
to do with this situation both here and abroad. 
People are now paying the penalty of extrava- 
gantly high wages and indifferent service. It is 
becoming more and more difficult to maintain 
homes, and families are crowding into hotels. 
Distracted housewives offer hitherto undreamed- 
of inducements, but even these frequently fail 
to secure desired help. Wages have doubled in 
three years ; hours have been shortened ; tasks 
have been lightened ; living quarters have been 
made pleasanter; yet there are no girls in sight. 
In the whole field of reconstructive effort, 
there is no more fertile soil than this. Age-old 
customs of home-making have disappeared, and 
people are astonishingly receptive to the new. 
The complexities of modern life make it impos- 
sible for the well-to-do woman to do all her own 
housework, and it is questionable if the best inter- 
ests of society would be served by her attempting 



^Bloomfield, Management and Men, p. 26. 



Woman's Labor 53 

it. Relief lies along the way of cooperation and 
the abandonment of foolish display. 

Community kitchens delivering hot dinners in 
thermos containers have already demonstrated 
their usefulness and practicability in many places. 
Evanston, Illinois, a beautiful suburb of Chicago, 
has a very successful one started several years 
ago under the auspices of the Woman's Club. It 
sends out about 150 dinners each night at $1.10 a 
plate and $1.25 for Sundays and holidays. A 
delivery charge is added to these prices. This 
service is designed for families unable to obtain 
help ; the price makes it prohibitive to the poorer 
people. Yet the plan might well be adapted to 
the needs of wage-earners' families. The idea 
was developed in England^ under the Ministry 
of Food for workers during the war, and was 
quickly expanded to meet the needs of other 
classes. The wholesale desertion of an occupa- 
tion may eventually lead to standardized home 
service, and a simpler form of family life. Flunky- 
ism is out of place in a democracy. Every citi- 
zen in a free land should graciously perform 
personal services for himself, and allow others 
to go unchallenged into productive forms of 
labor. Real reconstruction will bring this to 
pass. 

The scarcity of workers in domestic service 
has served to bring the question of woman's labor 



* Moulder, Life and Labor, "Why National Kitchens Have 
Come to Stay," December, 1919, p. 316. 



54 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

conspicuously to the front in some quarters, but 
in this field it has not interfered with the business 
of the country, only with comfort. As opposed to 
this, it is instructive to note an occupation where 
scarcity of women has actually wrought hardship 
to the business interests of the nation. The 
telephone industry presents another illustration 
of the shortage of women workers. This industry 
has always utilized the services of girls because 
their labor was cheap, and they were supposed 
to have a certain deftness in the work, and there 
seemed to be a limitless supply. The companies 
on the whole have provided good conditions of 
labor, but the actual work from its very nature 
has always been a heavy nervous strain. While 
lines of girls were waiting outside for vacancies, 
the companies did not concern themselves par- 
ticularly with the effect of the occupation on the 
worker ; instead they developed a system of regu- 
lations advantageous to the business, but which 
are now apparently reacting in the opposite 
direction, for girls are seeking easier fields of 
activity. This has demoralized the industry. It 
is a known fact that an operator does not reach 
maximum efficiency until she has been working 
at least two years. In New York State alone, 
not half of the operators have been employed 
that long. Added to this preponderance of inex- 
perienced help, there is an actual shortage of 
from 700 to 1,000 workers. This combination 
of circumstances produces an acute situation. In 
Chicago the problem is similar. 



fVoman's Labor 55 

Poor telephone service jeopardizes business 
interests, and is a serious inconvenience to the 
general public. The probable solution of this 
problem is the installation of automatic instru- 
ments. Under this system every man would be 
his own " central," and could lodge his com- 
plaints in a mirror, while the companies would 
go on side-stepping as before. 

Owing to the situation which has been sug- 
gested, the governor of New York ordered an 
investigation into the working conditions of tele- 
phone operators, by the Bureau of Women in 
Industry of the New York State Industrial Com- 
mission. This report has been made public and is 
ably commented on in the Survey'^ for June 12, 
1920. Telephone work, it seems, has always been 
somewhat poorly paid, and the working hours 
long, due to much overtime requirement, although 
the basic day is eight hours for day and night 
workers and seven for evening and split-trick 
operators. The wages,- including recent in- 
creases, range from a minimum of ten to fifteen 
dollars a week to a maximum of from seventeen 
to twenty-three, according to the size of the 
borough, or town, in which the operator is lo- 
cated. The maximum is given only after six 
years of service. There is also a system of annual 
gifts after two years' employment. 

Working environment is practically always 

^ Shellabarger, "Hurry, Girls, Hurry!" The Survey, June 
12, 1920. 
^Ibid., June 12, 1920, p. 367. 



^6 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

good in telephone exchanges, and the companies 
are kindly in their dealings with girls, but the 
work itself is a great drain on the nervous sys- 
tem. An operator goes through fourteen pro- 
cesses to make an ordinary connection, and she 
must be swift and sure to give good service. The 
supervisor's '' Hurry, girls, hurry ! " doubtless 
spurs the girls to renewed effort, but it also adds 
greatly to the nervous strain, particularly when 
reinforced by abuse from subscribers. 

It is not possible within the limits of this chap- 
ter to discuss other industries where a shortage 
of woman's labor is felt, or new and alluring 
openings for women, but it may be pointed out 
that there is a demand ^ for girls everywhere. This 
is inevitable as there was practically no immigra- 
tion for five years, and now many foreign women 
are returning to their European homes. Depart- 
ment stores start inexperienced girls in basement 
salesrooms on fifteen dollars a week plus a com- 
mission on sales in some cities, while other busi- 
ness concerns are continually advertising for 
girls at fifteen to twenty dollars a week plus 
attractions of one kind or another, and experience 
unnecessary, while any woman who dons a white 
dress can go out to nurse the sick at twenty-five 
dollars a week. The ease with which work can 
be obtained, particularly at certain seasons of the 



* Since these words were written, a change has come about 
in industry and there are now (October, 1921) many unem- 
ployed. 



Woman's Labor 57 

year, has produced a sporting attitude towards 
labor among young casual workers. A case came 
to my notice recently of a country girl of twenty, 
who in thirteen months had been assistant cook 
in a lumberjacks' boarding-house, a cherry 
picker, a waitress, a nurse for children and for 
the sick, a teacher in a dance-hall, a soap demon- 
strator in a department store, ironer in a laundry, 
and cashier in a restaurant. Her experience in 
the dance-hall was not pleasant. ** But," she 
said, "you can't be too particular when you are 
earning money." 

Another woman, in five months, has been cook 
in a family, laundress in a private home, day 
worker, cook in a cafeteria, child's nurse, invalid's 
nurse, worker in a laundry, and janitress in a 
school. She could have remained longer in each 
place had she desired to do so, but she preferred 
a vain quest for the ideal job, high wages, and 
nothing to do. And these are not isolated in- 
stances. It is these new conditions connected 
with the labor of women that cry aloud for con- 
sideration in the nation's reconstruction plans. 
Education, organization, standardization should 
be copiously injected. 

The women who took men's places in industry 
during the war, on the whole did their work satis- 
factorily. In this country practically every occu- 
pation had its quota of women before the 
exigencies of war called them out to take their 
brothers' places. The only difference to be noted 
later was increased numbers in unusual places. 



58 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

Women were blacksmiths and bricklayers, and 
furnace ** men " and glass-blowers, and worked 
in quarries and mines and fertilizer factories be- 
fore 1917, but they were few and far between. 
Ninety glass-blowers and thirty-one blacksmiths, 
for example, did not show up very conspicuously 
among the millions of people working for wages. 
Later we became familiar with the sight of women 
performing heavy tasks. 

The replacement of men by women during the 
war was much more extensive in England than 
in the United States. Mr. Friedman^ gives a 
list of thirty-eight occupations in which women 
were substituted for men. In three years, nearly 
1,500,000 women took up work ordinarily per- 
formed by men. 

The student of social welfare is, of course, pri- 
marily concerned with the moral and physical 
effect of such unusual types of labor upon the 
workers themselves rather than in their economic 
aspects, and it is upon these that reconstruction 
plans must be focused. 

No discussion of the work of women today 
which omits mention of their so-called foolish 
expenditures is complete. We hear of it on all 
sides. Girls who, in the past had only a nickel 
for peanuts, now have dollars for silk stockings, 
and it is very disturbing. The divine right of 
kings has been banished from the earth, but the 
divine right to wear silk stockings is still a 



^Friedman, Labor and Reconstruction in Europe, pp. 98-99. 



fVoman's Labor 59 

cherished doctrine in some privileged circles. It 
is therefore not surprising that there should be 
much criticism of the wage-earner who puts her 
newly acquired riches into such luxuries. In 
speaking of these matters a man of much wealth 
and wisdom said to me : 

Why, in London last year, a woman trunk handler in trim 
uniform bent over to get the boxes on her truck, and she 
showed six inches of as handsome silk stockings as my wife 
ever wore. I could hardly refrain from remonstrating with 
her. 

Another man in Chicago cited the case of his 
arrogant stenographer who has furs as good as 
his wife's. These gentlemen were questioning 
the rights, not the taste, of their employees. 

In this connection. Miss Mary McDowell in 
an interesting article entitled, '* Extravagance or 
Standards?"^ quotes Mr. Seebohm Rountree, an 
English authority on labor, as saying that the 
present apparent extravagance is only a rising 
standard of living. He told the following story : 
A lady, after addressing munition women on 
** War Thrift " asked if anyone had anything to 
say. One girl arose and said : " Yes, I have 
something to say. Savin's all right and very 
good, but I want to tell yees that my mother 
never in her life saw a whole roast chicken till 
I brought it home the first Sunda' after my first 
pay, and I want to tell yees that my mother's 
going to have a whole roast chicken every Sunda' 
as long as I can buy it." She then added : *' I 



^The Outlook, December 10, 1919, p. 472. 



6o Some Problems of Reconstruction 

always had to buy the cheapest blouses made, 
and at last I bought a silk blouse, and my young 
man came home on a furlough. He looked at me 
and said, * Why, Maggie, what have ye done to 
yerself? I never saw you look like that/" Then 
with a challenge in her voice, she added : '* I want 
to say that, savin's or no savin's, as long as he 
talks like that, I'm goin' to buy silk blouses ! " 
We all know that it is extremely difficult to 
spend money wisely. Men of large wealth sud- 
denly acquired, often make the silliest use of it. 
It requires imagination and much more to get 
beyond food and personal adornment in the mat- 
ter of expenditure. The twenty-dollar-a-week 
clerk who buys twenty-one dollar shoes sees no 
incongruity in her act. Her sister who puts five 
weeks' wages in a coat feels that she can at last 
hold her head high among the mighty. Old- 
fashioned people have ideas about the suitability 
of clothes to time and station. The modern girl, 
fortified by her new high wages, flouts both, and 
goes forth to work dressed as for a festival. She 
is still intoxicated by money, and the seeming 
magnanimity of the installment-plan merchant. 
The laundress who, out of her four dollars a day, 
pays seventy cents a pound for turkey, while her 
employer gives thanks over chicken at thirty- 
eight, thinks that she is getting the best out of 
life. And the scrub woman who now scorns our 
old clothes, bidding us wear them ourselves, 
(which we do), is sure that she is not going "to 
waste her money by saving it." 



fF Oman's Labor 6i 

But, by no means, are all of our newly enriched 
women reckless in their expenditures. They are 
all dressing better, and living better, and many 
of them are trying to lay by something for the 
inevitable rainy day. Standards of living are ris- 
ing, and it is desirable that they should. A truly 
democratic society will suffer no wide divergence 
of comfort and decency. 

Out of all this that is new so far as women 
workers are concerned, emerge new obligations 
for society at large. Perhaps instead of new 
obligations we might say a new emphasis on the 
old. Girls are still working long hours at monot- 
onous tasks in factories and shops, and wreck- 
ing their youth in the effort. Nor have they all 
entered into the millennium of high wages. Speak- 
ing of monotonous processes, Carleton Parker^ 
tells of a woman employed in the Stockyards in 
Chicago who made one precise stroke each sec- 
ond, or 3,600 every hour of every day she worked. 
People who think dish-washing is dull, have no 
conception of the absolute stupidity of many of 
the mechanical industrial processes, nor appre- 
ciation of the crying need for recreational stim- 
ulus in such cases, if the worker's mentality is 
not to become atrophied. 

In the reconstruction of social and industrial 
life which is slowly, but surely, taking place, the 
status of women workers must be given consid- 



^ Parker, "The Technique of American Industry," The 
Atlantic Monthly, January, 1920. 



62 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

eration. Women will profit by all the improve- 
ments that are introduced into the industrial life 
of men, and should be given the benefit of them. 
Their lives would be enriched by participation in 
the control of their own working conditions, and 
their interest would be stimulated thereby. An 
apparent wage prosperity is not enough to make 
useful citizens in a democracy out of wage- 
earning women. They need besides the guaran- 
tees and safeguards of legislation, education, and 
organization. A minimum wage, an eight-hour 
day, and other standards endorsed by such organ- 
izations as the National Women's Trade Union 
League of America, the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Associations, not to mention other bodies, 
are not too much to ask of a reconstructed nation. 
Minimum wage legislation is in force in every 
English-speaking country outside the United 
States, and in some states of the Union, but the 
most populous industrial states lag behind in this 
matter. 

Women have attained full citizenship as the 
first step toward reconstruction, but since a large 
proportion of the workers are too young to avail 
themselves of the ballot, it remains for others to 
fight their battles for them at the polls and in 
legislative halls. 

A democracy that does not give enlarged op- 
portunity to its women workers is only an 
autocracy below the surface, and merits oblivion. 
The new and reconstructed world can sanction 
only genuine democracy. 



fVoman*s Labor 63 



REFERENCES 
BOOKS 

Bloomfield, Meyer, Management and Men, The Century 
Co., 1919. 

Friedman, Elisha M., Labor and Reconstruction in Eu- 
rope, The Macmillan Company, 1919. 

Hewes, Amy, and Walter, Henriette R., Munition Makers, 
The Russell Sage Foundation, 1917. 

Industrial Notebook, published in sections by the National 
Board of Y. W. C. A. 

King, W. L. MacKenzie, Industry and Humanity, Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company, 1918. 

Lattimore, Eleanor L., and Trent, Ray S., Legal Recog- 
nition of Industrial Women, National Board of Y. M. C. A., 
1919. 

Schafer, Joseph, and Cleveland, Frederick A., (Editors), 
Democracy in Reconstruction, Houghton Mifflin Company, 
1919. 

Women in Industry, Report of War Cabinet Committee. 
(London.) 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

McDowell, Mary E., "Extravagance or Standards?" The 
Outlook, December 10, 1919. 

Moulder, Priscilla, "Why National Kitchens Have Come 
to Stay," Life and Labor, December, 1919. 

Peel, Mrs. C. S., "Domestic Life in England To-day," The 
North American Review, February, 1920. 

Parker, Carleton H., "The Technique of American Indus- 
try," The Atlantic Monthly, January, 1920. 

Shellabarger, Eloise, "Hurry, Girls, Hurry!" The Survey, 
July 12, 1920. 



CHAPTER V 
AMERICANIZATION 

AMERICANIZATION as a term is new, 
practically coincident with war activities, 
while Americanization as a process is old, dating 
back to the efforts of the Jamestown settlers and 
the Pilgrim Fathers to adapt themselves to their 
new surroundings. In those early days, it was 
not an organized movement that bore the conno- 
tation "Americanization;" it was rather a pre- 
cious, though nameless, individual experience. 
Those early settlers came to the New World 
imbued with a spirit that was to stamp itself 
indelibly on the new home, and later to bear fruit 
in national traits. And it is those very traits, 
modified by the experience of generations, that 
call aloud for recognition today. 

The nation went on for generations trustfully 
assuming that simple unaided participation in 
the social, political, and economic life, was the 
only thing necessary to make good citizens out 
of those who sought our shores. People were 
supposed to be imbued with the spirit of free 
institutions before setting sail for this haven, and 
could therefore be depended upon to make their 
own adjustments after their arrival. This as- 

64 



Americanization 6^ 

sumption tallied with the facts in the case of the 
earlier groups that came over after the begin- 
nings of our independent national life. It was 
not until a later period that men came in great 
numbers, knowing nothing of the principles of 
liberty upon which the Republic stood, and who 
were too illiterate to enter into the life that 
awaited them. And the New World forgot them. 
Indeed it was not until after the opening of the 
World War, in 1914, that the nation realized the 
extent and influence of alien groups in our 
midst. Then, for the first time, it dawned upon 
the country at large that the United States con- 
tained millions of Europeans, alien in speech 
and aspirations ; millions of men and women who 
were part and parcel of our industrial life, but 
whose interests were bound up in autocracies 
across the seas, and some of whom were ready 
to sacrifice the nation, if possible, to further the 
cause of despotism. 

This knowledge w^as a shock to all but a few 
students of the immigration problem who had for 
years viewed with dismay the great unassimilated 
mass in our midst, and felt that a time might 
come when its presence would mean danger. 
Most people, of course, knew nothing of the lack 
of assimilation. They knew only vaguely of the 
foreign groups in the great cities, and thought of 
them, if at all, only as a by-product of our indus- 
trial development, and a somewhat picturesque 
by-product at that. We have taken our popula- 
tion problems lightly as a nation, glad that we 



66 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

were growing big, and quite sure that we were 
growing strong. City slums became disturbing 
at times when epidemics raged, but these epi- 
sodes were soon forgotten, and no one dreamed 
of the more insidious poisons that might be 
injected into our national life by the hordes that 
were with us, but not always of us. Poliomyelitis 
is not more menacing than kultur. 

To understand clearly the conditions confront- 
ing the nation, it is necessary to review briefly 
the immigration movement into this country dur- 
ing the last hundred years. The first official 
records are for 1820. A full and interesting 
discussion of immigration is given by Dr. 
Emory S. Bogardus in his book on American- 
ization.^ Here, it is possible only to sketch 
the movement. Prior to 1820, the settlers had 
been mainly of British stock, together with some 
Dutch, Germans, and Scandinavians. Probably 
not more than 250,000 people arrived between 
1776 and the date just mentioned. In 1820 over 
8,000 arrived, two-thirds of whom came from the 
British Isles. Banner years after that were 1842, 
with over 100,000, and 1854, with almost 428,000. 
A potato famine in Ireland and political revolu- 
tions in the German provinces were the leading 
causes for the greatly increased numbers who 
emigrated at this time. In 185 1, 272,000 Irish 
came, and 215,000 Germans in 1854. 



* Bogardus, Essentials of Americanisation, chaps, xi to xvi 
inclusive. 



Americanization 67 

The Civil War checked immigration for a time, 
but the opening up of the West, by the building 
of railroads, and the return of general prosperity, 
caused Europeans to seek our shores again, and 
the year 1873 showed a total of 460,000. A finan- 
cial panic in that year, put another check on 
immigration, but in 1882 the figures were high 
again, 789,000 being reported. Many Jews came 
that year owing to renewed persecutions in Rus- 
sia. At this time, the character of our immigra- 
tion began to change. The more illiterate races 
of southeastern Europe were drawn to America 
for divers reasons, and they brought lower living 
standards and different social and political ideas. 
And 1882 was the year in which the Chinese 
Exclusion Act was passed. The Chinese had 
come over in such numbers, while transconti- 
nental railroads were being built, that their 
presence came to be deeply resented in those 
western states where they had settled, and could 
always underbid a white man in competition for 
a job. Their standard of living was on a totally 
different plane. Our first general immigration 
law also belongs to this year, but its terms were 
not stringent. 

After this, numbers rose and fell like the ebb 
and flow of the tide as American prosperity or 
depression and European oppression dominated. 
In 1886, there were 335,000; in 1898, 230,000, and 
in 1905, over 1,000,000. In 1907, over 1,250,000 
arrived, and about the same number in 1910, 
1913, and 1914. Then came the World War. 



68 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

Only 340,000 immigrants were reported in 191 5> 
and 110,000 in 1918, while the year closing June 
30, 1920, shows 800,000. It must be remembered 
that larger numbers than ever are returning to 
their European homes, although even normal 
times have shown a considerable homeward 
movement. 

Thus in the passing of a century over 30,000,000 
immigrants have cast in their lot for better or 
for worse with the United States of America, 
and upon them depends in large measure the 
strength and permanence of this country. Each 
group that has come has brought some contribu- 
tion to the country of its adoption. And it is said 
that nations made up of diverse elements present 
the most virile civilization. Dr. Charles A. Ell- 
wood states that, " Sociologists are generally 
agreed that the intermingling of peoples in the 
past has been a great stimulus to progress."^ 

The United States, then, should rank high in 
progress, and it will rank higher than ever before 
when all the foreign elements are incorporated 
as an integral part into the social whole. Com- 
mon language is not the only force making for 
solidarity, although the lack of it brought to light 
the pressing need for Americanization, and made 
it a basic problem of reconstruction. 

When the American Army was formed, and 
it was found that it contained 500,000 young men 
of draft age who could neither speak nor write 



^Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, p. 199. 



Americanization 69 

English, the country was aroused. The changed 
character of our immigration since about 1885 
was responsible for this anomalous situation. 
The earlier immigrants had come from countries 
in northwestern Europe where a high degree 
of literacy prevailed ; while the later arrivals 
included many from countries, like Serbia, for 
example, where the rate of illiteracy is 79 per 
cent. In 1910, there were 3,000,000 foreign-born 
whites, ten years of age and over, in the United 
States who were unable to speak, read, or write 
English, and 1,500,000 who could not read or 
write any language. While immigration prac- 
tically stopped during the period of the war, there 
is evidence that it has begun again in full force, 
and it is therefore necessary that some definite 
policy in regard to it should be adopted. For a 
hundred years, the dominating principle has 
been to admit everyone who sought admission, 
although, from time to time, certain barriers 
have been erected. It was found that the open- 
door policy was flooding the country with many 
types of undesirables. While the theory of keep- 
ing the way clear for all who wish to come is 
democratically sound, its practical application 
may be open to question. 

The latest immigration law was enacted Feb- 
ruary 5, 191 7, after acrimonious discussion over 
the literacy test. The most important of the 
thirty-eight provisions of this law, which went 
into effect May i, 1917, are as follows: 



yo Some Problems of Reconstruction 



1. (Section 2.) A head tax of $8.00 for each immigrant 

to be paid to the Collector of Customs. 

2. (Section 3.) The excluded classes are: idiots, the 

feeble-minded, epileptics, the insane, chronic alcoholics, 
criminals, vagrants, the physically and mentally inca- 
pacitated, polygamists, anarchists, contract laborers, 
Chinese, except certain professional classes, and those 
unable to read some language. 

3. (Section 4.) The deportation of prostitutes or other 
immoral persons. 

4. (Section 18.) The immediate deportation of aliens 
brought in violation of law. 

5. (Sections 19 and 20.) The deportation of any alien, 
advocating or teaching anarchy or destruction, within 
five years after arrival. 

It is not felt that this law meets the needs of 
the country, therefore the following amendments 
have been proposed and are pending at the 
present time : ^ 

1. The regulation of immigration on the percentage prin- 
ciple, with the application of this principle to each 
people or mother-tongue group separately, but im- 
partially. 

2. The annual admission of from 3 to 10 per cent of 
those of each people already naturalized, including the 
American-born children of that people as recorded in 
the census of 1920. 

3. The creation of an Immigration Commission to de- 
termine annually the rate .... with power to 
admit or exclude labor under exceptional circumstances, 
to formulate plans for distribution of immigrants, to 



^The law of June, 1921, went into effect since the above 
was written. This limits the number that may come from 
any country to 3 per cent of the number born in that coun- 
try and resident in the United States in 1910. This is 
applicable for one year. 



Americanization 71 

deal with special cases of importance, including the 
formulation of educational standards for naturaliza- 
tion. 

4. The raising of the standards of qualification for citi- 
zenship, and the extension of the privileges of natural- 
ization to everyone who qualifies. 

5. The separation of the citizenship of a wife from that 
of her husband. 

6. The repeal of all laws dealing specifically and diflfer- 
entially with the Chinese. 

The wisdom of some of these provisions will 
be seen at a glance. Citizenship, for example, 
should clearly not be granted because of mar- 
riage, regardless of necessary qualifications. The 
reckless absurdity of granting citizenship to 
women simply because their husbands were citi- 
zens was shown in New York State after the 
recent enfranchisement of women. It was then 
found that 200,000 of the new citizens could 
neither read, write, nor speak English. A degree 
of literacy in the language of the country should 
unquestionably be made a conditon of citizenship. 

Many feel that the present is a time for more 
than ordinary caution in handling the question 
of immigration. The magnitude of the political 
and social disturbances abroad bids us beware of 
introducing more elements of unrest here, and 
such elements are likely to come in with an 
influx of foreign laborers who are coming now^ 
in greatly increased numbers. In fact they are 
coming at the old rate of about 5,000 a day, 



^September, 1920. 



72 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

800,000 having landed during the year ending 
June 30. 

Speaking of this situation, the Chicago Tribune^ 
says editorially: 

Disorders in Poland and elsewhere in central Europe are 
stimulating emigration to the United States. These new- 
comers will get a physical examination at our ports to see 
that they do not bring in contagious diseases, and they will 
be otherwise examined, but not to discover what their state 
of mind is. 

They are coming from lands of unrest and of revolution- 
ary action, and we should like to know in what spirit they 
are coming, whether to make use of opportunities in a free 
land, with respect for its institutions, or whether they are 
bringing their hatred and prejudices, their revolutionary 
spirit, their class consciousness and their contempt for 
democratic institutions. We do not want European additions 
to the elements of unreasoning discontent in this country. 

The problem at hand is difficult enough with- 
out injecting into it new trouble. It is not only 
difficult ; it is colossal. As Professor Ross^ points 
out, no nation has ever faced the task of trying to 
assimilate as many and as varied elements as 
the United States has in her midst. He also 
points out the fact that a third of our population 
is of foreign parentage, while between sixteen and 
seventeen millions^ are of foreign birth. Such 
arresting facts as these, together with the heavy 
percentage of illiteracy mentioned before, fur- 
nished the basis for the country's campaign of 



^Editorial, Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1920. 
^Ross, The Principles of Sociology, pp. 12-13, note. 
^In war time. 



Americanization 73 

education known as "Americanization." The 
following summary^ presents the detailed 
reasons why the nation embarked upon this 
campaign while the war was in progress : 

1. There are 13,000,000 persons of foreign 
birth, and 33,000,000 of foreign origin^ 
living in the United States. 

2. Over 100 different foreign languages and 
dialects are spoken in the United States. 

3. Over 1300 foreign-language newspapers 
are published in the United States, having 
a circulation estimated at 10,000,000. 

4. Of the persons in the United States, 
5,000,000 are unable to speak English. 

5. Of these persons, 2,000,000 are illiterate. 

6. Of the unnaturalized persons, 3,000,000 
are of military age. 

7. In 1910, 34 per cent of alien males of draft 
age were unable to speak English ; that 
is, about half a million of the registered 
alien males between twenty-one and thirty- 
one years of age were unable to under- 
stand military orders given in English. 

8. War industries are largely dependent on 
alien labor; 57 per cent of the employees 
in the iron and steel industries east of the 
Mississippi; 61 per cent of the miners of 



^Hill, "The Americanization Movement," The American 
Journal of Sociology, May, 1919, p. 612. 

^Persons having one or both parents of foreign birth. 
Census for 1910. 



74 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

soft coal; y2 per cent of workers in the 
four largest clothing manufacturing cen- 
ters ; and 68f per cent of construction 
and maintenance workers on the railroads 
are foreign born. 
9. Only about 1.3 per cent of adult non- 
English-speaking aliens are reached by 
the schools. 
10. Many large schools in American cities 
have been spending more for teaching 
German to American children than for 
teaching English and civics to aliens; 

No comment is necessary to impress upon the 
reader the immediate necessity of having the 
country enter upon large-scale Americanization 
work, and of carrying it on without cessation till 
these unfortunate conditions have vanished. The 
war needs of the country disclosed the necessity 
for the education of foreigners ; peace needs 
should serve to promote the work. 

Teaching English and citizenship to adult 
foreigners is not new. For years it has been done 
through the not very successful medium of the 
night school in cities. The Y. M. C. A. also took 
up this work in industrial centers.^ Dr. Peter 
Roberts of the International Committee was a 
pioneer in this field, and his lessons are still used 
widely. But when millions are to be educated, 
concerted action is necessary, and under some 
central directing agency. The investigation 



^Roberts, The Neiv Immigration. 



Americanization 75 

undertaken by Mr. Hill ^ revealed the fact that 
there were in the field a number of private bodies 
that might w^ell undertake such w^ork if they 
would, and he mentions among these the organi- 
zations of foreigners themselves. It appears that 
the thirty-three important racial groups studied 
have at least two national organizations each, 
and these fall into three general classes : 

1. Those which exist "for the purpose of 
maintaining or securing the political unity 
and independence and perpetuation of their 
native land." The Polish Central Relief 
Committee of America embracing about 
4,000,000 Poles is of this kind. Such an 
organization is not interested in promoting 
America's welfare. 

2. The kind that " has for its main purpose 
the solidarity of the race in America." The 
Pan-Hellenic Union is an example. It 
** fosters the language and traditions and 
customs of the home country here and 
urges its foreign born to stay together." 
Naturally such a group cares nothing at 
all about becoming Americanized. 

3. The type that exists "primarily to work 
for America and only secondarily for its 
native land." Organizations of this kind 
are neither numerous nor strong. The 
Croatian League of the United States is an 
example. 

*Hill, "The Americanization Movement," The American 
Journal of Sociology, May, 1919, p. 614. 



76 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

It is deplorable that so many millions of for- 
eigners should have been left to drift into the 
formation of groups alien in spirit to the land 
which shelters them. It is largely due to a policy 
of neglect which must be changed in this period 
of reconstruction if Americanization is to be more 
than a catchword. 

This is a New World problem which America 
must work out alone. Other nations have noth- 
ing to offer in the way of experience. Canada, 
Australia, and the Argentine Republic, however, 
should watch with interest the attempts at solv- 
ing the assimilation problem here, for they, too, 
may find an undigested mass in their midst in 
the years to come. Before the war, these coun- 
tries were receiving a considerable stream of 
migration from the Old World, although the 
numbers were not in any way comparable with 
those coming into the United States. 

Large-scale Americanization work has been 
carried on in the United States since the forma- 
tion of the National Americanization Committee 
in May, 191 5, whose object was " to bring Ameri- 
can citizens, foreign born and native born alike, 
together on our National Independence Day to 
celebrate the common privileges, and define the 
common duties of all Americans wherever born.'* 
The various states have entered upon the task 
with spirit, the work in Massachusetts being 
especially commendable on account of its suc- 
cessful correlation of all groups representing 
race, labor, capital, and social welfare. 



Americanization 77 

Among cities, Cleveland is entitled to high 
rank. In 1914, the city had 80,000 foreigners, 
ten years of age and over, unable to speak Eng- 
lish, and only something more than 11,000 in the 
schools. By means of generous financial appro- 
priations, educational centers were opened all 
over the city, and special attention was given to 
women. The number reached was small in pro- 
portion to the need, but the campaign showed 
good methods of attacking the problem. It is 
difficult to keep weary adults interested in night 
school. This is the reason that the regular city 
night schools have not been more successful than 
they have in attracting large numbers of for- 
eigners. The more alert and skilled will seek 
and find instruction in the English language, but 
the great body of dull and unskilled must be 
followed to their lairs. 

Many large industrial plants carry on exten- 
sive Americanization work along more than 
mere linguistic lines. The D. E. Sicher Company^ 
of New York, is a notable pioneer. Its work is 
done in cooperation with the city Board of Edu- 
cation. The Ford Motor Company of Detroit has 
an extensive school and it is needed, since there 
are at work in the plant fifty-three nationalities 
speaking over a hundred languages and dialects. 
This is a part of Mr. Ford's welfare work, the 
high wages and profit-sharing features of which 
startled the country some years ago. The 



^Manufacturers of muslin goods. 



78 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

Pennsylvania Railroad System, with its 33,000 
foreign-born employees, has carried on instruc- 
tion in English for some time. Many other com- 
panies are equally deserving of mention for their 
Americanization work, carried on either by them- 
selves or in cooperation with the Y. M. C. A. 
and the Y. W. C. A., but it is not possible to 
enumerate them here. If for no nobler reason 
than self-interest, all industrial plants employing 
the foreign born should help them to become 
citizens in the best sense of the word. 

This is not the place to discuss methods of 
instruction since that is a pedagogical question, 
but we can at least insist that the human side 
of the problem should not be overlooked. The 
hand of fellowship is needed as well as the 
primer; the good neighbor as well as the good 
teacher. 

While insisting upon the necessity for aggres- 
sive Americanization work, one word must be 
said about the attitude of the native born toward 
the foreigner. It is too often one of contempt, 
a feeling which is reflected even in children, and 
it has generated a deep and abiding resentment 
in the hearts of those lately come among us. 
The immigrants usually come from a low eco- 
nomic plane, but they are not devoid of feeling. 
They are exploited by the unscrupulous; jeered 
at by the thoughtless ; and neglected by those 
who should protect them, and it is small wonder 
that they sometimes grow suspicious and think 
that the land of promise has become a land 



Americanization 79 

of swindle. Dr. Carol Aronovici,^ himself a 
foreigner, sees this tendency and pleads for a 
recognition of ''the fundamental human values 
in the immigrant," and the removal of ''all dis- 
crimination in discussion and treatment of for- 
eigners." These foreigners are our brothers, and 
when the real test of war came, an overwhelm- 
ing majority stood shoulder to shoulder with the 
native born, and proclaimed their brotherhood 
to the world. Professor Dallas Lore Sharps 
pointed out that in a list of casualties printed 
one day in the Boston Transcript, six out of eight 
were names almost unpronounceable to the 
native-born American. These young men had 
given their lives for the country of their adop- 
tion ; no native son could do more. 

On the whole the foreign-speaking people 
have shown a remarkable degree of adaptability 
and exceptional eagerness to attain to the 
American standards. It takes time to acquire 
a language, two years at best, and more than 
that length of time to absorb the ideas of a new 
land. And when strangers arrive at the rate of 
a million a year, as they did for a few years pre- 
ceding the war, it is not surprising that they 
should at first seek refuge in their own racial 
groups, to screen themselves from the strange- 
ness of it all. Discouragement, too, often causes 
them to retire even farther from the haunts of 



^Aronovici, Americanisation, p. 47. 

'Sharp, "Patrons of Democracy," The Atlantic Monthly, 
November, 1919, p. 649. 



8o Some Problems of Reconstruction 

the native born. The New World is not such 
a paradise as it was painted. Hunger and want 
stare them in the face here also. Money does 
not rain down on them as their hopes had pic- 
tured. Illustrative of this point is the story told 
to me by a young Swedish woman who came to 
this country at the age of eighteen. She said if 
someone had told her when she was leaving 
Stockholm that dollar bills were to be picked up 
on the streets of London, she would not have 
stopped there, for she was sure that two dollar 
bills were waiting to be picked up in New York. 
After thirteen years, she was ready to proclaim 
that they could only be dug out by hard labor. 

The country has embarked on a great enter- 
prise, and its accomplishment will require 
courage and persistence. Assimilating millions 
of foreign born is difficult, but some of the native 
born need Americanizing too, and the belated 
ones within our borders must not be forgotten. 
The 11,000,000 Negroes, the 2,000,000 Appa- 
lachian mountaineers and our 300,000 Indians 
need a stronger helping hand than the nation has 
yet given them if they are to attain to their 
highest spiritual stature. 

The all-inclusiveness of the term "Americani- 
zation'' is clearly seen by Dr. Aronovici when 
he says : 

Understanding, tolerance, service, are the chief needs of 
the immigrant in process of Americanization. Beyond these 
efforts the Americanization movement applies to all the peo- 



Americanization 8i 

pie of America and comprises all education, all effort toward 
social justice, all striving toward national unity and national 
development.^ 

Americanization is a great undertaking and it 
will bring forth great results if it goes forward 
"with malice towards none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to 
see the right." 

REFERENCES 

BOOKS 

Abbott, Grace, The Immigrant and the Community, The 
Century Co., 1917. 

Antin, Mary, The Promised Land, Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, 1912. 

Aronovici, Carol, Americanization, Keller Publishing Com- 
pany, 19 19. 

Bogardus, Emory S., Essentials of Americanization, The 
University of Southern California Press, 1919. 

Commons, John R., Races and Immigrants in America, 
The Macmillan Company, 1907. 

Ellwood, Charles A., Sociology and Modern Social Prob- 
lems, American Book Company, 1913. 

Roberts, Peter, English for Coming Americans, Associ- 
ation Press, 1 9 12. 

Roberts, Peter, The Nezv Immigration, The Macmillan 
Company, 1912. 

Ross, Edward A., The Old World in the Nezv, The Cen- 
tury Co., 1914. 

Ross, Edward A., The Principles of Sociology, The Cen- 
tury Co., 1920. 

Steiner, Edward A., On the Trail of the Immigrant, Flem- 
ing H. Revell Company, 1914. 



^Aronovici, Americanization, p. 47. 



82 Some Problems of Reconstruction 



Warne, Frank J., The Tide of Immigration, D. Appleton 
and Company, 1916. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Hill, Howard C, " The Americanization Movement/' The 
American Journal of Sociology, May, 1919. 

Sharp, Dallas Lore, "Patrons of Democracy," The Atlati' 
tic Monthly, November, 1919. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE NEGRO 

A PROBLEM allied to that of Americaniza- 
tion and in many ways a part of it, yet in 
others quite remote, is that of the American 
Negro. He is a more serious problem now than 
he was at the close of the Civil War. The Negro 
is not alien in language and he dwells in the 
land of his fathers, but he is nevertheless of 
another race as surely as the Chinese or Japanese 
is of different racial stock. Yet unlike other 
races, he is here by no act of his own. Hence 
it seems reasonable to discuss him separately. 

Although Americanization in its wide sense 
applies to all races of foreign origin within our 
borders, its more limited application is to those 
of foreign tongue who have come here from the 
Old World to better their condition. 

At the time of emancipation there were 
4,000,000 Negroes in the United States ; today 
there are 11,000,000. This is less than a tenth 
of the entire population of the country, but since 
they are largely confined to the South, they 
form a large percentage of the people of that 
region as is shown by the following table: 

83 



84 Some Problems of Reconstruction 



PER CENT OF NEGROES TO POPULATION 

Alabama 42.5 

Arkansas 28.1 

Florida 41.0 

Georgia 45.1 

Louisiana 43.1 

Mississippi 56.2 

North Carolina 31.6 

South Carolina 55.2 

Tennessee 21.7 

Texas 17.7 

Virginia 32.6 

Certain localities show a much greater pre- 
ponderance of Negroes than this. In one county 
in Mississippi, for example, there are six times as 
many Negroes as whites, while in another, there 
are ten times as many. In Jacksonville, Charles- 
ton, and Savannah more than half the people are 
black, but in spite of this, the Negro is not an 
urban dweller in the South. When he migrates 
to the North, he usually settles in cities for 
economic reasons, but in this respect, he does 
not differ from the migratory white man. 

The Negro has been moving north for more 
than a hundred years, but the first movement of 
considerable extent was to the West. Between 
1865 and 1868, about 140,000 Negroes left 
Georgia for western states.^ They went in the 
hope of entering into the exercise of full political 
rights which emancipation did not bring to them 
in their home state. Another movement reached 



^Negro Year Book, 1918-19, p. 8. 



The Negro 85 



a head in the spring of 1879, when upwards of 
60,000 moved to Kansas and neighboring states. 
The first migrants were from the river counties 
of Mississippi and Louisiana. The white planters 
in the deserted areas fearing a labor shortage, 
started a campaign to bring back those Negroes 
who had gone, and to induce others to remain at 
home. It was not very successful, however, and 
the United States Senate finally authorized an 
inquiry into the causes of the exodus.^ There 
was much heated controversy by all parties ; the 
two most prominent Negro leaders in the 
country, Frederick Douglass and Richard T. 
Greener, taking opposite sides. The former held, 
among other things, that the South was the 
natural market for the Negro's labor, and that 
the principles of liberty would be best worked 
out for him in that region ; the latter believed 
the best chance of the black man for political 
preferment and economic advancement was in 
the northern and western states. Mr. Greener, 
moreover, foresaw the inrush of immigrants 
from Europe and urged his own race to get the 
])est western land before it was pre-empted by 
foreigners. - 

But regardless of controversy, the Negroes 
rushed to the West in such numbers that suffer- 
ing among them became acute, and relief 
societies had to be established. It is estimated 



^Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 2nd session, p. 104. 
"Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration, p. 140. 



86 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

that 40,000 of the entire 60,000 arrived in Kansas 
destitute. The Kansans naturally were not par- 
ticularly pleased by this invasion. Only about 
5,000 of the total number went to other western 
states, and of these, according to Dr. Woodson^ 
a goodly number found their way into Indian 
Territory, and were assimilated by the Indians 
who had always, even in slavery days, treated 
the Negroes as equals. But when the Territory 
was thrown open for settlement in 1889, bitter 
race prejudice on the part of the white settlers 
practically excluded the Negro. Other migra- 
tions took place before the World War, particu- 
larly into the Appalachian mining regions just 
before and after 1890, but the western movement 
outlined was the most extensive. 

In addition to these migrations due to con- 
certed action, there has always been an indi- 
vidual movement to the North on the part of 
educated and other ambitious Negroes. By 
1910, the cities of New York, Philadelphia, 
Chicago, and St. Louis had large colored popula- 
tions, while Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Indian- 
apolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Boston each 
had a goodly number of black men. The total 
Negro population in the northern states in 1910 
was over 1,000,000, 42 per cent of whom had 
been born in the South. Their geographical 
distribution was as follows : 



* Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration, pp. 142-144. 



The Negro 87 



New England States 76,000 

Middle Atlantic States 414,000 

East North Central States 401,000 

West North Central States 242,000 

Mountain States 21,000 

Pacific Coast States 31,000 

But all this is prefatory to mention of the 
startling exodus from the South during the 
years 1916-17. Although this movement started 
in 1915, and did not end till 1918, it reached its 
highest point in the years first cited. Unlike 
other migrations, this is said to have been leader- 
less. " The name of no individual, nationally or 
even locally, stands out anywhere as a leader 
in this movement. In the Southland, there was 
not a single meeting held in the interest of the 
movement."^ Individuals and families appar- 
ently started simultaneously for the land of 
greater economic opportunity. And they went 
to the industrial centers. Estimates vary as to 
the number of migrants all the way from half 
a million to a million. It is probable that three 
quarters of a million is more nearly correct, a 
number sufficiently large to leave a great breach 
in the labor ranks of the South, particularly in 
certain agricultural districts. 

It has been claimed that underground forces 
were at work to bring the Negro north ; one, 
the desire on the part of certain captains of 
industry to break the Trade Union ; another, 
an effort on the part of politicians to make 

^Negro Year Book, 1918-19, p. 9. 



88 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

certain doubtful states safe for the Republican 
party. These are only surmises, and can have 
no great weight. The fact is that the Negroes 
came in train loads and they were not very 
welcome. It is one of the tragedies of the race 
that no white man wants a black man for a 
neighbor. 

The editor of the Negro Year Book thinks that 
the causes of the migration were both economic 
and social, and enumerates them under the follow- 
ing heads :^ 

ECONOMIC 

1. Labor depression in the South in 1914-15, and demoral- 
ization in cotton prices owing to the war. 

2. Ravages of the cotton boll weavil in 1915-16. This 
unsettled farming conditions. 

3. Unusual floods over sections of the South. 

4. The generally low wages which had always prevailed 
in the South. 

5. Increase in the cost of living. 

6. Shortage of labor in the North. 

SOCIAL 

1. Failure of the law to give protection against lynching. 

2. Treatment accorded to Negroes in the courts. 

3. Mistreatment of Negroes by officers of the law. 

4. Lack of protection to Negro women and lack of legal 
redress for crimes committed against them by white 
men. 

5. The "Jim Crow" car. 

6. Disfranchisement laws. 

7. The general neglect by the authorities of Negro sec- 
tions in towns. 

8. Lack of adequate school facilities. 

9. Treatment accorded Negroes in many stores. 



''Negro Year Book, 1918-19, p. 12. 



The Negro 89 



It is more than likely that all of these economic 
and social causes had more or less to do with 
the movement. Theoretically at least, the 
northern people are willing to give the colored 
man a chance, and extend to him equality under 
the law, but when it comes to sharing with him 
jobs and residential sections, riots frequently 
ensue. Racial feeling, of course, is strong all 
over the world, and a feeling of racial superiority 
is quickly developed in conquerors or early 
arrivals. The Negro is not the only one to 
suffer. We hear contemptuously spoken the 
words "dago," *' sheeny," and "greaser" as well 
as " nigger." This, to say the least, is exceedingly 
bad manners which Americanization should 
correct. The fortunes of races change as the 
centuries pass, and it is egregious folly for the 
Brobdingnags of today to plant their feet on 
the necks of the Lilliputians. 

The Negro's labor is a valuable asset to the 
South, and he feels more at home in that part 
of the country, but he is discriminated against 
socially, politically, and in law, as has been said. 
This is galling to the educated and to the ambi- 
tious : but even these do not always find the 
North the paradise their imaginations painted. 
Many of the migrants of 1916-17 have already 
trekked back to the cotton fields, discouraged by 
the pace in northern mills, and the hostility of 
organized labor ; and they are finding a welcome. 

These children of the African wilds have a 
place in American life, and it should be secured 



90 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

to them by a nation busy with plans for recon- 
struction. Of the 46,000,000 Negroes in the 
world, 11,000,000 are in our midst, and their 
future must be worked out here. Plans for 
transporting them to Africa or any other place 
are chimerical. The effort to establish them 
in Liberia is grim testimony to the futility of 
such a scheme. Nations at war can transplant 
millions of men, but the commerce of the world 
is paralyzed by the undertaking. 

The problem facing the country, then, is the 
educational development of the Negro so as to 
make him a more valuable element in American 
life, and this is not a problem for any one section 
of the country. It must be worked out by the 
North and the South together, and in coopera- 
tion with the progressive element in the Negro 
race. 

The use of black troops in the war served to 
fix attention once more on the status of the 
Negro. At the time of the armistice, France 
had in her armies 150,000 combat black troops.^ 
They came from Senegal, the Soudan, Somali- 
land, and Madagascar, and were used on the 
French front and in Saloniki, and won distinc- 
tion. Great Britain also used many thousands 
of colored men in France, back of the lines, and 
in England, to free white men from labor in 
order that they might fight. The labor unions 
offered objections to this, on the ground that 



^Negro Year Book, 1918-19, p. 128. 



The Negro 91 



it might be a step toward the exploitation of 
labor after the war. 

While no definite figures are available as to 
the number of Negroes who participated in the 
World War, it is probable that there were over 
2,000,000, counting all those used as combat 
troops and labor battalions in France, at Saloniki, 
at the Dardanelles, in Palestine, in Eg>'pt, in the 
Kameruns, in Togoland, in German Southwest 
Africa, and in German East Africa.^ And if all 
these gave as good an account of themselves as 
did the colored troops fighting under the United 
States banner, it can truly be said that they 
helped greatly in winning the war. 

The Negro who went to Europe to fight for 
democracy would be dull indeed if the experience 
did not lead him to question the quality of democ- 
racy at home in its application to himself. The 
Negro who asks for equality under the law has 
a right to be heard, and his protest against 
lynching is entitled to consideration by the 
nation. 

Of lynching there is nothing extenuating to 
say. It is with the keenest regret that we admit 
an average of about a hundred lynchings a year 
within the United States.^ Ninety per cent of the 
lynchings are in the South. Rape is the alleged 
cause in a fourth of the cases, but flimsy excuses 
suffice when racial and evil passions are aroused. 
This is a crime that disgraces us in the eyes of 



^Negro Year Book, 1918-19, p. 129. 
'Brawley, Your Negro Neighbor, p. 41. 



92 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

the world, and was used as anti-American propa- 
ganda during the war. The best spirit of the 
South as well as of the North condemns this. 
A year ago, the Executive Board of the Georgia 
Federation of Women's Clubs drew up resolu- 
tions condemning lynching as a means of pun- 
ishing crime "of any name or character." 

The men who were brothers in the trenches 
should be recognized as brothers on the fields 
of peace. But, unfortunately, the jewel of con- 
sistency is not always a national adornment. 

Housing conditions for Negroes in northern 
cities are extremely bad and present another 
problem. They have seldom been good. Now, 
owing to the shortage of houses for everyone, 
they are worse than ever. Colored sections are 
full to overflowing, and when well-to-do colored 
people have found homes in white districts, riots 
have ensued in Chicago and other places. Dr. 
Woodson^ of the Association for the Study of 
Negro Life and History, portrays vividly the 
unspeakable living conditions of many colored 
people. He says of the recent migrants : 

A large percentage of these Negroes are located in room- 
ing-houses or tenements for several families. The majority 
of them cannot find individual rooms. Many are crowded 
into the same room, therefore, and too many into the same 
bed. Sometimes as many as four and five sleep in one 
bed, and that may be placed in the basement, dining-room, 
or kitchen where there is neither adequate light nor air. 

Such crowded conditions breed vice, crime, 



^Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration, p. i86. 



The Negro 93 



and disease, and are a menace to any community. 
No body of people can thrive with such infected 
spots in their midst. Adequate housing is one 
of the conspicuous needs of the Negro in the 
North today ; it has been a need for many years, 
and plans for reconstruction should heed this. 
The colored man is handicapped not only by 
poverty in getting a home ; no amount of money 
enables him to live in a select neighborhood 
without protest from the white people. Since it 
is the mental temper of those in power that 
segregation must be practised, it becomes the 
duty of the state to insist that decent homes be 
provided for the colored in specified districts. 

Another grave need of the Negro is greater 
educational opportunity along all lines. Higher 
education should undoubtedly be provided for 
those who can profit by it, but the greater 
number will profit most by learning how to work 
efficiently and how to live healthfully and 
morally. Booker T. Washington was the most 
notable advocate of the need for industrial and 
agricultural training for his people, and Tuskegee 
Institute is a noble monument to his memory. 
His ideas had great weight among white people 
in the South, and have influenced their attitude 
toward the education of the black man. 

In 1907 the Southern Educational Association 
adopted the following resolutions^ in regard to 
Negro education : 



^Weatherford, Negro Life in the South, pp. 111-12, 



94 Some Problems of Reconstruction 



1. We endorse the accepted policy of the states of the 
South in providing educational facilities for the youth of 
the Negro race 

2. We believe that the education of the Negro in the 
elementary branches of education should be made thorough, 
and should include specific instruction in hygiene and home 
sanitation, for the better protection of both races. 

3. We believe that in the secondary education of Negro 
youth, emphasis should be placed upon agriculture and the 
industrial occupations, including nurse training, and home 
economics. 

4. We believe that for practical, economical, and psycho- 
logical reasons Negro teachers should be provided for 
Negro schools. 

5. We advise instruction in normal schools by white 
teachers whenever possible. 

6. We recommend that in urban and rural Negro schools 
there should be closer and more thorough supervision 

7. We urge upon school authorities everywhere the im- 
portance of adequate buildings, comfortable seating, and 
sanitary accommodations for Negro youth. 

8. We deplore the isolation of many Negro schools, 
established through motives of philanthropy, from the life 
and the sympathies of the communities in which they are 
located. 

9. We insist upon such equitable distribution of the 
school funds that all the youth of the Negro race shall have 
at least an opportunity to receive the elementary education 
provided by the state 

The Negro has made great progress since 
emancipation when only a bare 10 per cent could 
read and write. Now 60 per cent are literate ; a 
notable achievement in half a century, it must 
be admitted. 

Christian philanthropy has built many insti- 
tutions for Negroes in the South. The work at 



The Negro 95 



Hampton and Tuskegee is known everywhere. 
But more and better common schools are needed 
so that all may participate. Vice and crime 
thrive on illiteracy with Negroes as with other 
races. The educated Negro is not filling the 
criminal classes. He is giving a good account 
of himself in industry and in his community, 
and the nation owes him a square deal. 

The Negro has his faults, but vindictiveness 
is not one of them. He is usually willing to 
forgive past discrimination against himself, and 
accept a helping hand when it is offered. While 
races of alien tongues are being assisted on the 
road to the best our democracy has to offer, the 
Negro, too, should be remembered. 

Dr. Bogardus^ suggests that a reasonable pro- 
gram for Negro advancement should include 
wholesale education along all lines, the keeping 
open of the ballot to all who are ready to exer- 
cise its prerogatives, and the undermining of race 
prejudice. This is not asking too much for 
11,000,000 Americans who in actual practice are 
generally denied the right of self-determination. 

Another solution of the problem of race rela- 
tions which may well be presented here is that 
adopted at the annual conference of the National 
Urban League held in Detroit in 1919. This 
appears in the Survey, November 29, 1919, in 
an article by Mr. Hill.^ This league which has 



^Bogardus, Essentials of Americanization, pp. 1 12-14. 
'Hill, "Why Southern Negroes Don't Go South," The 
Survey, November 29, 1919. 



g6 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

thirty local branches, " endeavors to improve the 
conditions in cities where whites and Negroes 
live." It represents both races, and urges upon 
the country the guaranteeing of the following: 

1. That working and living conditions of Negroes will 
be fair and decent. 

2. That transportation accommodations for Negroes will 
be equal to those provided for white people. 

3. That adequate educational facilities will be provided 
for Negroes. 

4. That the Negro will be given fair treatment and will 
be protected in buying and selling. 

5. That the life and property of every Negro will be pro- 
tected against all lawless assaults. 

6. That the Negro will be assured of equal justice in the 
courts. 

No fair-minded American can withhold justice 
from anyone, and least of all, can he withhold 
it from fellow-Americans. The war gave the 
American Negro his opportunity. The migration 
to the North focused attention upon his indus- 
trial value, and gave him more confidence in 
himself. A shortage of workers pushed him up 
into new branches of skilled labor hitherto prac- 
tically closed to him. And he has demonstrated 
his worth. 

A reconstructed America, which seems a long 
time coming, will insist upon an affirmative 
answer to the question : "Am I my brother's 
keeper?" And the color of the skin shall not 
be the determining element in brotherhood. 



The Negro 97 



REFERENCES 
BOOKS 

Baker, Ray S., Following the Color Line, Doubleday, 
Page & Company, 1908. 

Bogardus, Emory S., Essentials of Americanization, The 
University of Southern California Press, 1919. 

Brawley, Benjamin G., Your Negro Neighbor, The Mac- 
millan Company, 1918. 

Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt, Darkwater, Harcourt, Brace 
and Howe, 1920. 

Ellwood, Charles A., Sociology and Modern Social Prob- 
lems, American Book Company, 19 13. 

Negro Year Book, (An Annual Encyclopedia of the Ne- 
gro), Negro Year Book Pub. Co., Tuskegee, Ala. 

Weatherford, Willis D., Negro Life in the South, Asso- 
ciation Press, 191 1. 

Woodson, Carter Goodwin, A Century of Negro Migra- 
tion, The Association for the Study of Negro Life and 
History, 19 18. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Bowen, Louise De Koven, " The Colored People of Chi- 
cago," The Survey, November i, 19 13. 

Hill, T. Arnold, " Why Southern Negroes Don't Go 
South," The Survey, November 29, 1919. 

Howard, George Elliott, " The Social Cost of Southern 
Race Prejudice," The American J ournal of Sociology, March, 
1917, pp. 577-93. 

The Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 2d Session, 
p. 104. 



CHAPTER VII 
HOUSING 

IF Mr. Percy Alden's ^ statement that " a very 
fair test of a civilization is the housing of 
the people" is true, most countries today may 
well feel ashamed of the type of civilization they 
represent. Mr. Alden, who is a noted English 
settlement worker, knows well the ill effects of 
inadequate housing, both upon the immediate 
victims of miserable homes, and upon the health 
of the next generation, and his standard may 
safely be accepted. Democracy cannot thrive 
under the blighting influence of improper homes. 
Yet one-third of the people in the United States 
are living in dwellings that fall below a reason- 
able minimum standard, while "one-tenth are 
living under conditions which are an acute 
menace to health, morals, and family life."^ This 
in itself is enough to warrant the inclusion of 
housing among the vital problems of the age. 

But the United States is not alone in enduring 
the discomforts of a shortage of homes for its 
population. All countries directly affected by 
the war are in like straits. A million homes are 



^Alden, "The Difficulties of the Housing Problem," The 
Contemporary Review, December, 1919, p. 644. 
'Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner, p. 7. 
98 



Housing 99 



needed in England, according to some estimates, 
while a lower figure is given by the more con- 
servative. Everywhere is heard the same story 
of crowding and high rents, and a determined 
effort to seek relief. Slum dwellers have long 
endured crowding, and a little more huddling 
together is accepted by them without protest. 
But the situation is changed when the articulate 
element of the population finds itself jostling its 
neighbor in dark rooms at exorbitant rentals, or 
facing the possibility of no rooms at all. To get 
a place to live in at any price is a problem in 
some cities today. A homeless world is a sorry 
spot for democracy to thrive in, but it is an 
excellent breeding place for sedition. Therefore 
cold logic, without the aid of sentiment, should 
be able to rouse the states and municipalities to 
action. Lack of construction during the war, 
and the enormous increase in the cost of build- 
ing material and labor, have conspired to place 
city homeseekers in a miserable plight; and this 
should make housing a first charge upon recon- 
struction plans. 

Housing is no new problem, but the war 
focused attention upon it anew in this country, 
when it was found that manufacture of war 
essentials was checked because the workers, 
summoned from all parts of the country to indus- 
trial centers, had no place to live. No man who 
has not a decent home can do good work, and 
no country can prosecute a war successfully 
without having its industrial workers at maxi- 



100 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

mum efficiency. Most private industrial enter- 
prises had overlooked, or ignored, the important 
fact of the relation between decent living and : 
output ; but the nation in time of stress could not 
afford to overlook anything that retarded pro- 
duction. 

To meet a war emergency, therefore, the 
United States Housing Corporation attempted 
to provide housing for workers in essential indus- 
tries.^ The undertaking was halted by the signing 
of the armistice, but about six thousand houses, 
and sixty-four dormitories had already been built 
in twenty-five places all the way from Vallejo, 
California, to Bath, Maine, and remain as an 
example of what can be done by federal initiative. 
The actual cost to the Housing Corporation of 
a six-room wooden dwelling in 1913 was $2,972. 
In 1919, the same dwelling cost $5,002. A 
brick house cost $3,586 in 1913, and in 1919, 
$6,110. These figures carry the secret of the 
housing shortage today. Low-priced buildings 
for the working population cannot be erected 
profitably enough to attract private capital. 
Wage-earners cannot pay fancy rents ; their only 
alternative is to crowd a little closer. It is a 
generally accepted principle that working people 
cannot pay more than one week's wages for one 
month's rent without scrimping their families 
on other necessities. If private builders, who in 
the past have looked after the housing needs of 



^The Survey, September 15, 1920, p. 701. 



Housing loi 



the people in a hit-or-miss way, can no longer 
meet the situation adequately, then we must, in 
the words of the Neiv Republic} "make up our 
minds that urban housing is essentially a public 
function," and proceed accordingly. To quote 
further from the same editorial : 

Either we shall have cities in which work can be done 
efficiently and economically, and life can be lived health- 
fully and hopefully, or we shall have cities that are hives 
of exploitation and disease and disorder, a plague upon our 
American civilization. 

The housing problem has invaded all kinds of 
communities. Not only the great cities find many 
of their people homeless ; the smaller industrial 
centers are also casting about for dwellings for 
their workers. And in this connection, the expe- 
rience of Wilmington,^ Delaware, is worthy of 
emulation. This industrial city has increased 19 
per cent in population since 1914, owing to ship- 
building and other war activities. To help meet 
the need for homes, the federal government 
erected 500 houses in 1918, After the signing of 
the armistice, private enterprise did not take up 
the work of building as was expected. Conse- 
quently, a Joint Committee on Housing was 
formed, which reported a need of homes for 7,800 
people, or the construction of 1,500 dwellings in 
the immediate future. 



*"The Common Sense of Housing," (Editorial), The 
New Republic, September 8, 1920, p, 34, 

*Gulick, "Attacking the Housing Problem," The Survey, 
March 20, 1920, pp. 763-65, 



102 Some Problems of Reconstruction 



The report states : 

This lack of homes is a vital problem. It has already 
been felt in dangerous overcrowding, in excessively high 
death and infant mortality rates, in rent profiteering, in 
decreased industrial efficiency, in increased labor turnover, 
and has actually resulted in driving workers and business 
to other cities where homes can be found Wil- 
mington cannot expect to grow without first meeting its 
housing problem; it cannot get new business without an 
adequate supply of efficient labor; it cannot man the indus- 
tries without housing the man. Whole families cannot live 
in one room and rear strong, healthy children. The wage- 
earner cannot pay half his earnings for rent and still sup- 
port his family. The foreigner cannot be Americanized when 
forced to live in un-American surroundings. 

The startling truths contained in this state- 
ment led to the adoption of a constructive hous- 
ing program, which provided for the erection of 
homes for selling and rental purposes, on favor- 
able terms by a housing corporation composed 
of business men, and the establishment of a 
million-dollar, limited, dividend-bearing fund. 
Increased costs make the private builder timid 
about erecting houses which are almost sure to 
prove a loss in a few years, when rented or sold 
at figures which the unskilled laborer can afford 
to pay. Wilmington's plan would bear imitation 
in other cities now groaning under overcrowding. 
Concerted action is the only method of meeting 
a situation that has become alarming all over the 
country. 

The housing situation in New York is desper- 
ately acute. Conditions are worse there than in 



Housing 103 



any other American city because there is now, 
as always, greater rushing of people into that 
metropolis than elsewhere. During the period 
of the war the thousands who went away were 
offset by the thousands who came in to carry on 
various war activities. Foreigners returning to 
their own countries, and the cessation of immi- 
gration failed to cause a falling off in population. 
Indeed, during the three years and a half begin- 
ning in 1917, there has been a normal increase.^ 
But there has been far from a normal increase in 
the number of houses erected. There is a short- 
age of at least 50,000 homes in New York City 
today. 

Fantastic proposals for remedying the housing 
situation in New York have not been lacking. 
One reformer advocated the immediate building 
of an additional story on the top of all existing 
apartment houses. The well-nigh insurmount- 
able difficulties connected with such extensive 
building operations in densely crowded buildings 
had evidently not occurred to him. Another pro- 
posal, reported by the newspapers, is to use 
unoccupied homes for those who cannot find 
abiding places. It appears that an investigation 
carried on in New York City reveals about 250 
closed mansions with numerous and spacious 
rooms. These, it is asserted, could be made to 
accommodate 10,000 people, and should be com- 



* Stein, "The Housing Crisis in New York," The Survey, 
September i, 1920, p. 659. 



104 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

mandeered by the city to meet an urgent housing 
need. 

While the solemn grandeur of vacant palaces 
must always be an irritating spectacle to the 
homeless, the conversion of those palaces into 
tenements does not appear to be a satisfactory 
solution of the housing problem. 

A much more logical proposal^ comes from the 
Reconstruction Commission of the State of New- 
York. This includes three recommendations : 

1. That a law be enacted requiring the appointment of 
local housing boards in communities having a population of 
over 10,000 and the appointment of a central state housing 
agency for coordinating local effort. 

2. That a constitutional amendment be enacted permitting 
extension of state credit on a large scale and at low rates 
to aid in the construction of moderate-priced homes. 

3. That an enabling act be passed permitting cities to 
acquire, and hold, or let, adjoining vacant lands if necessary 
to carry on housing. These proposals are submitted in the 
hope of relieving a situation that has become well-nigh intol- 
erable. The immediate future must find a way out, and the 
extension of state aid in some form seems to offer hope now. 

The whole question of the location of indus- 
trial plants is inextricably bound up with projects 
for housing the people. City transportation in 
the rush hour has become a horror. Too many 
people must move in the same direction at the 
same time under our present arrangements. Any 
housing reconstruction plans that overlook this 
fact are inadequate. The great majority of 



^ Stein, "The Housing Crisis in New York," The Survey, 
September i, 1920, p. 661. 



Housing 105 



people must live reasonably near their work 
places. They can afford neither time nor money 
for long morning and evening journeys. The 
sane solution of the difficulty, therefore, seems to 
be to scatter the v^ork places. Great industries 
should not be located in great cities, but outside 
where the employees could live in villages 
near-by, or in garden cities such as have been 
developed in England, where all the people can 
walk to their work and have some ground to till 
if they wish it. Planning for the future has not 
become a habit with American municipalities, 
although city planning is not now considered 
chimerical. Haphazard growth has demonstrated 
its own futility. 

The contented middle class little thought, ten, 
or even five years ago, when it was endorsing 
schemes for housing the poor, that it would 
have a housing problem of its own today. Yet 
it has one. Accommodations are difficult to 
secure and rents are exorbitant. People are 
driven into hotels that are overcrowded and 
expensive. And on all sides one hears complaints. 
In some places, quarters cannot be found for 
teachers. In a certain university town, last year 
an instructor paid $80 a month for two basement 
rooms. A woman advertised a three-room fur- 
nished apartment in the same town recently, 
and had 164 responses in the first mail thereafter. 
Another tiny apartment that was rented fur- 
nished last winter^ for $65 is now bringing $110. 



^ 1920. 



io6 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

Owners have doubled rents in many cases, and 
this is working serious hardship among people 
whose salaries have not increased proportion- 
ately, and upon those whose incomes are sta- 
tionary. Home owners alone are untouched by 
the turmoil, save in so far as lack of labor and 
rising costs affect them. 

A European monarch thirsting for world 
dominion has brought America to such a pass. 
We need to be prepared at home against the 
devastating effects of any future international 
cataclysm. We need a housing program far- 
reaching enough to render a recurrence of the 
present situation impossible. 

Housing reform in this country is a century 
old. In New York, immigrants coming in after 
the War of 1812, created an overcrowded con- 
dition that caused the health department to utter 
a note of warning. During the next few decades, 
we find desultory efforts to improve matters. 
The first official investigation, however, did not 
come until 1857, when the state legislature 
appointed a committee of five to examine tenant 
conditions in New York and Brooklyn. The 
lengthy report of this committee reveals deplor- 
able conditions. 

Tenements developed from mansions aban- 
doned by their owners, because of the encroach- 
ments of business. These were let to several 
families on a floor by enterprising real estate 
agents, and they made desirable enough homes 
at first, but pressure of population led to the 



Housing 107 



cutting up of large rooms into many small ones 
regardless of light and air. Stables in the rear 
were also converted into dwellings for many 
people. Finally some ingenious person saw the 
prospect of greater profits from erecting barracks 
all over the spacious lots, and thus the old-time 
tenements came into being. Sweatshops and 
disease flourished together in fire traps not fit 
for human beings to dwell in, till the somnolent 
public conscience was again aroused in 1900, 
and a new tenement house law enacted the fol- 
lowing year. Much improvement resulted from 
this, but the ground gained has been lost, and 
conditions are as bad as ever, perhaps worse, 
since every abandoned rookery is now occupied 
by a population crying out for homes. The 
experience of the nation's greatest city is, in a 
measure, the experience of all. Buildings go up 
for business and recreation, but not for habita- 
tion. Films must be screened though Rome has 
no place to lay her head. 

Now what is the purport of all this? Descrip- 
tion can be added to description, and yet it all 
beggars description. Sufficient is known of the 
situation to warrant a few sane proposals for its 
relief. As social reform grows out of tyranny, 
so better housing grows out of bad. Worms do 
sometimes turn. 

A few facts stand out prominently as a result 
of our brief survey of the situation, and they are 
as follows : 



io8 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

1. Human beings drawn together for business 
or industrial purposes must be housed at rates 
they can afford to pay. 

2. Good housing is a fundamental need. 

3. Unregulated greed is a dangerous landlord. 

4. Cataclysms do occur in nations as in nature, 
and the rational thing is to be prepared for them. 

5. The world offers ample experience in im- 
proved housing enterprises to form the basis of 
a reconstruction program here. 

In regard to the first four, enough has been 
said. We may, therefore, proceed to a brief 
outline of meritorious undertakings and regula- 
tions in this and other countries, particularly in 
regard to the housing of wage-earners. 

The term "model tenement" has a familiar 
sound, because it has been cried in our ears for 
some years, and it simply means a building "of 
standards higher than those prevailing."^ 

As early as 1845, ^^e find the birth of the 
Metropolitan Association for Improving the 
Dwellings of the Industrial Classes in England. 
At the present time this association provides 
homes for over 5,000 people. Nine years later a 
similar, but less successful, organization was 
launched in New York. Boston came next with 
model homes in 1871, and Brooklyn followed with 
the well-known Alfred T. White model tene- 
ments, built between 1878 and 1890. These set 



*Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner, 
America's Next Problem, p. 91. 



Housing 109 



a new standard at that time, but are not quite up 
to our present bath requirements. Then 200 
families luxuriated in six baths located in the 
basement. 

Within the last generation various British 
cities, such as Glasgow, Birmingham, and Lon- 
don have experimented on a large scale with 
municipal, as well as private, housing enterprises. 

About thirty model tenement properties, in 
addition to those operated by the City and 
Suburban Homes Company, are all that Amer- 
ica's greatest city has to show the investigator, 
and these, of course, belong to the pre-war period. 
Philanthropy and 4 per cent apparently do not 
make a strong appeal to those who have capital 
to invest in building. The City and Suburban 
Homes Company of New York is the largest 
owner and operator of model tenements in this 
country, taking care of about 11,000 people. It 
is said that, all told, not more than 20,000 people 
are housed in model tenements in New York City. 
This is a small number compared with those 
who should be living under better conditions 
than they are at present. And it is a small 
number compared with the 125,000 people 
similarly housed in London. 

It may be a matter of surprise to many that 
the only American who ever gave a great sum to 
build homes for working people, gave it to the 
city of London in 1862.^ This was Mr. George 



*Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner, 
America's Next Problem, p. 92. 



no Some Problems of Reconstruction 

Peabody, whose gift amounted to $2,500,000. 
This Peabody Donation Fund houses about 
20,000 people. There are two other housing 
trusts in London, the Guiness and the Sutton, 
the latter having available funds worth $10,- 
000,000. These trusts have no stockholders and 
no dividends. Any surplus of the rent that 
remains after expenses are paid goes back into 
the fund. Such housing undertakings are purely 
philanthropic. The only undertakings in this 
country at all comparable to the London trusts 
in spirit, though not in vastness of funds, are the 
Charlesbank Homes in Boston, founded by Mr. 
Edwin Ginn in 191 1, and the Mullanphy Apart- 
ments in St. Louis, the former having about one 
hundred apartments, and the latter over thirty. 
This indicates, according to Mrs. Wood^ that 
''pure philanthropy cannot be described as the 
American method of solving the housing 
problem." 

But the whole story of housing the industrial 
classes does not end with model tenements. 
Model villages existed in America before the 
United States Housing Corporation undertook 
to provide them for war workers. A generation 
ago, Pullman, Illinois, was built by the Pullman 
Palace Car Company for its employees. Sanitary 
conditions were excellent, and there was an 
attempt to introduce the element of beauty into 



^Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner, 
America's Next Problem, p. 93. 



Housing III 



the flat, unlovely prairie ; but the men were not 
allowed to buy the houses in which they lived, 
therefore good schools and all else went for 
naught. There seemed to be an impression, too, 
that men who lived outside the town in order to 
get cheaper rents, or to own their homes, were 
discriminated against in the plant. The enter- 
prise was finally abandoned by the company, 
and the property sold. Pullman is now a part of 
the city of Chicago, and has entirely lost its early 
character. Pullman's failure was due to an ex- 
cessive paternalism, which workmen in this 
country deeply resent. But this experience did 
not deter other companies from similar under- 
takings. There are in the United States, at the 
present time, over two hundred industrial towns 
built by employers, and they are of three varieties 
— good, bad, and indifferent. Some of the best 
known are Leclaire, Illinois, built by the N. O. 
Nelson Manufacturing Company, where an excel- 
lent spirit prevails ; Goodyear Heights, near 
Akron, Ohio, built by the Goodyear Tire and 
Rubber Company ; and Hopedale, Massachusetts, 
where the Draper Company houses its unskilled 
workers. 

While some of the housing enterprises in this 
country are commendable in their effort to com- 
bine beauty and utility for low rents, it is the 
English undertakings that give us the industrial 
garden city at its best. Lord Leverhulme, whose 



112 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

recent experiments with the six-hour day^ in 
the manufacture of Sunlight soap, has a model 
town, at Port Sunlight, near Liverpool, for his 
employees. It is a lovely village, where, judging 
from appearances, the workers dwell healthfully 
and happily. Bournville, near Birmingham, is 
another very attractive garden city, built by the 
Cadbury Cocoa concern. This is one of the older 
examples, dating back to 1879, although it was 
not till nearly twenty years later that building 
on a large scale was undertaken. Anyone 
acquainted with the charm of such English vil- 
lages must ardently wish that American em- 
ployers would build for beauty as well as for 
shelter. 

Continental countries, too, have their quota of 
housing enterprises, but it is not necessary here 
to go into details concerning them. It is suffi- 
cient to indicate that there is evidence of an 
enlightened movement in most civilized lands 
to house the workers adequately. It is a move- 
ment that should be endorsed more generally by 
employers here. Enterprises free from the taint 
of paternalism, which is so galling to workmen 
in the United States, are sure of success. The 
employer has no safer investment open to him 
than that which lies in the health and happiness 
of his employees. No nobler work in AmiCricani- 
zation can be performed than providing the 
working people with homes up to the best 

^Leverhulme, The Six-Hour Day and Other Industrial 
Questions, chap, in, p. 34. 



Housing 113 



American standard. Thirteen of our states^ have 
housing laws applying to some, or all, of the 
cities within their boundaries. Provision for the 
large cities is ordinarily made first, since the evils 
of bad housing are more apparent in large cen- 
ters. But lawmakers should not assume that 
smaller places do not need regulating. 

Great Britain is nearer solving her housing 
problem than any other country. According to 
the New York Times: 

The providing of homes for all classes has been accepted 
by the nation as a public responsibility. In consequence the 
British people are perhaps nearer a solution of the dilemma 
than any other nation.^ 

Parliament has ceased haggling over ways and 
means, and has accepted the principle that ade- 
quate housing is an offset to revolution, and is 
offering bonuses to builders. The stimulating 
effect of this measure is now being felt. A 
permanent policy can be adopted after immediate 
needs have been satisfied. People cannot wait 
for shelter while lawmakers discuss policies. 

Canada,^ too, is moving in the direction of 
building homes for her people. The Dominion 
Government recently made a loan of $25,000,000 
for national housing. The amount was dis- 
tributed among the nine provinces, according to 



* Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wis- 
consin, Indiana, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mich- 
igan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. 

^The New York Times, January 2, 1921. 

^Buckley, "Government Housing in Canada," National 
Municipal Review, August, 1920, p. 481. 



114 Some Problems of Reconstruction 



population, at 5 per cent interest. The provinces 
will administer the fund. About 35,000 houses 
have already been erected in accordance with the 
act. Town-planning principles have been adopted 
for the purpose of giving dwellers in even the 
humblest houses the benefits of space and beauty. 

Even before the World War, practically all 
civilized countries recognized the necessity of 
housing regulations and had placed laws on their 
statute books. In this connection, it is interest- 
ing to note that Belgium^ had one of the earliest 
constructive housing laws. It is also one of the 
best. But nearly a generation before the enact- 
ment of this law of 1889, societies for the con- 
struction of workmen's houses were organized, 
and actively at work. Prior to 1889, these 
societies had expended over 8,000,000 francs in 
the erection of houses. 

Sweden, Spain, Rumania, Luxemburg, Chile, 
Brazil, and Cuba, as well as the larger nations, 
had enacted housing laws before the days of a 
house famine, which only serves to show that 
housing is an issue of paramount importance at 
all times. During ordinary years, when there 
has been no world upheaval to disturb the gen- 
eral trend of building, the higher economic groups 
can usually look after their own needs, but this 
is not the case with the unskilled, and they must, 
therefore, be taken care of by the nation, the 
state, or the municipality. This does not mean 

^Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner, 
America's Next Problem, p. 164. 



Housing 115 



that they need charity — by no means — but they 
must be provided with homes which they can 
rent or buy at figures commensurate with their 
earnings. The nation's work, neither in peace nor 
in war, can be carried on properly without ade- 
quate homes for workers, and the war-purged 
nations must recognize this. Reconstruction of 
our social and economic systems is futile, unless 
the foundation stone of good housing is placed 
beneath the structure which we hope to see arise 
from the chaos of the past few years. 

REFERENCES 

BOOKS 

Thompson, W., Housing Up-To-Date, The National Hous- 
ing Reform Council, 1917. (London.) 

Wood, Edith Elmer, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage 
Earner, America's Next Problem, The Macmillan Company, 
1919. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Alden, Percy, "The Difficulties of the Housing Problem," 
The Contemporary Review, December, 1919. 

Buckley, Alfred, "Government Housing in Canada," 
National Municipal Reznew, August, 1920, 

Gulick, Luther H., "Attacking the Housing Problem," The 
Survey, March 20, 1920. 

Stein, Clarence S., "The Housing Crisis in New York," 
The Survey, September i, 1920. 

"The Common Sense of Housing," (Editorial), The 
New Republic, September 8, 1920, 



CHAPTER VIII 
EDUCATION 

THE democratic ideal must include an educa- 
tional program that would fill with surprise 
adherents of an aristocratic culture. Learning 
in a democracy may not hold itself aloof from the 
life of the common people. Many believers in 
culture for culture's sake have feared that the 
democratization of learning would mean its com- 
mercialization, and would fain withhold intellec- 
tual advancement from those who might, by force 
of circumstances, turn it to commercial uses. But 
the idea of the sanctity of learning is giving way 
to a more rational utilitarianism which seeks to 
use the best products of life, of which education 
surely is one, for the general advancement of all 
the people because they are the keepers of the 
world. No more do we trust to the few to pre- 
serve society, since in a moment of lust they 
may destroy it. We now place our faith in the 
many, and they must have at least a modicum 
of education if reasoned actions are to prevail. 
Again, educational opportunities must be ex- 
tended if human groups are to progress. History 
shows that substantial social progress is impos- 
sible without education. Successful democracy 
rests upon literacy. It is not necessary, however, 

ii6 



Education 117 



in these twentieth-century days in the land of 
freedom, to enlarge upon this phase of the sub- 
ject. Everyone admits the necessity for edu- 
cation of classes and masses alike, the only 
question being one of method. Free instruction 
from kindergarten to university is the ideal in 
many states, and mere formal learning is giving 
way all along the line to work of a practical 
character. 

Our chief interest here is in education in a 
program of reconstruction, and our aim is to 
discover ideas and movements that commend 
themselves to believers in the social value of an 
educated proletariat. People of means can pro- 
vide desirable instruction for themselves, if not 
in one place, then in another, but wage-earners 
and their children must have schools near their 
door if they are to be of value to them. Such 
schools, therefore become a community matter 
and all the people profit by them. 

With the growth of the democratic ideal has 
grown up the somewhat new belief that educa- 
tion is a social rather than an individual matter, 
and that its aim should be the development of 
useful citizens to function in a better world. 
Says Professor Ellwood : 

Education exists to adapt individuals to their social life. 
. . . . The social function of education is to guide and 
control the formation of habit and character, on the part 
of the individual as well as to develop his capacity and powers 
so that he shall become an efficient member of society.* 



* Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, p, 359. 



Ii8 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

The good citizen can be developed only by the 
most painstaking effort. The small child must 
be made to realize that he does not live for him- 
self alone. If he learns this lesson well, he will 
not as a man be a social menace. " We are all 
members one of another " is something that must 
be learned. It is the laissez-faire idea that seems 
innate. Wars and their accompanying horrors 
have come from the latter principle. If we are 
to arrive at a higher social order it will be by 
systematic training of each individual, not only 
in the elementary branches, important as they are, 
but in the more difficult field of human relation- 
ships. 

Socialized education is the demand of an era 
of reconstruction. 

The ultimate reliance in all social reform or social recon- 
struction must be upon the education of the individual. 
. . . . Only by raising the intelligence and character of 
the individual members of society can a higher type of social 
life permanently result.^ 

Much emphasis is now being placed on the 
socialization of men. Mere gregariousness is not 
socialization. The mere teaching of people in 
groups does not make those groups social. It 
may make them shrewd and efficient, but it may 
leave them very poor citizens. And a democ- 
racy must have good citizens. An individualized, 
commercialized education may produce a race of 
cultured rogues who are a menace to the social 



^Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, p. 354. 



Education 119 



order. Professor Ellwood^ points out that the lat- 
ter years of the nineteenth century were saddled 
with this type of education, and, in consequence, 
frequently failed to produce good citizens. It is 
not sufficient, therefore, that youth be herded 
in schools. That were a simple task. The soul 
of youth must be saturated with the idea of the 
oneness of men. So long as men use their educa- 
tion to get the best of their brothers, there will 
be revolutionary unrest, and an unstable state 
of society. To prevent this all grades of educa- 
tion must be given a social slant. The elemen- 
tary, as well as the higher schools of the future, 
will know how to convert embryo bandits into 
law-abiding citizens, and good citizenship will 
go hand in hand with literacy. Then individual 
success will not be incompatible with social 
service. As has been said : 

Our higher education should have the ideal not of indi- 
vidual power and success, but of social service; and this 
means that in addition to the technical or professional edu- 
cation which the more highly educated are giving, there 
must be a sufficient knowledge of social conditions and the 
laws and principles of social progress given them to enable 
them to serve society rightly. Intelligent social service 
cannot exist without social knowledge.^ 

The best instrument yet devised to foster 
democracy and to promote the ideal of socialized 
knowledge is the public school. While we are 
ready to admit that it often falls far short of its 



^Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems, p. 362. 
^Ihid, p. 304. 



I20 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

possibilities in these two directions, in practice, 
the theory underlying it is sound. For the masses 
of the people this is the only feasible means of 
securing an education, and no effort is too great 
to expend in making it the best possible kind of 
institution. 

We may posit then the free public school as 
the basic stone in a democratic system of educa- 
tion. Children from the various economic strata 
find there a common meeting place where friend- 
ships can flourish regardless of the parents' 
financial rating. Professor Dallas Lore Sharp 
paid a beautiful tribute to the public school as 
the fundamental institution of democracy in an 
article in the Atlantic Monthly, June, 1920, when 
he spoke of the youth with unpronouncable for- 
eign names, who went from the schools hand in 
hand with boys of American birth, to fight for the 
maintenance of the democratic principle, and laid 
down their lives for it. Boys who are friendly 
as children will understand each other through 
life. 

But the public school as an institution needs 
no defense. It needs only protection from politics. 
Education is too sacred a matter to be at the 
mercy of political partisans. The management 
of schools should be undisturbed by local or 
national issues. The best methods for training 
children to be good citizens are the issues to be 
considered, and they are paramount. 

For many years our schools proceeded on the 
assumption that education and life were but dis- 



Education 121 



tantly related, an assumption that gave us many 
educational absurdities, for example, high-school 
courses, college preparatory in nature, when an 
almost negligible proportion of the students went 
to college. 

The natural conservatism of people makes it 
difficult to efifect changes in public institutions, 
and when we remember that education for the 
many is of comparatively recent origin, it is not 
surprising that our schools slowly give way to 
the idea that education is only for the leisure 
classes, and has nothing at all to do with those 
who labor, since they were long considered en- 
tirely beyond the pale. Professor Ross says that, 

. . . . in every society the propertied classes instinc- 
tively cherish and propagate the idea that work is con- 
temptible. They are bound to do this lest their social position 
be ruined by the spread of the rival idea that work 
is worthy, whereas habitual idleness is contemptible.* 

In such an atmosphere the school has evolved. 
It is small wonder, then, that the introduction of 
courses designed to help the worker earn a liveli- 
hood should meet with opposition. There has 
grown up the idea that learning which has no 
practical value confers a measure of elegance 
upon the possessor, and on this account it is 
cherished by pedants and snobs today. Even the 
lowly are more or less affected by it, and have 
not always been friendly toward the teaching of 
manual arts when such instruction was mani- 
festly to their own advantage. Commenting upon 



*Ross, The Principles of Sociology, p. 600. 



122 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

this paradoxical attitude, Professor Ross says: 
"The wives of butchers and bakers and farmers 
feel the lack of gentility in tools, and are bleakly 
inhospitable to the industrial features of the 
school."^ 

But in spite of an aristocratic stamp, education 
is coming into its own in this country with the 
growth of the idea that the general intelligence 
must be raised if democracy is to be preserved. 

The old hit-or-miss methods of instruction 
were not entirely successful. The " little red 
schoolhouse" did not always turn out adepts 
in even the three Rs. The child with an avid 
appetite for facts would glean them from books 
with little or no assistance from his teacher, and 
the dreamer could dream his dreams alone, but 
the dullard slipped along with an occasional 
prodding from a ferrule and emerged from school 
unburdened by knowledge if not as ignorant as 
when he entered. School days were often a time 
of trial to all concerned. No one dreamed of 
adapting the school to the child or of trying to 
discover his strong points. His weak points 
were in evidence. 

But the light finally broke through the dark- 
ness, and modern methods were introduced into 
the public schools, and experimentation still goes 
on, leaving much to be desired, particularly in 
rural schools. It is not the purpose here to take 
up the pedagogical question of content of courses 



^Ross, The Principles of Sociology, p. 600. 



Education 123 



and methods of instruction, but rather to point 
out the advance that has been made along the 
line of socializing the school and otherwise mak- 
ing it the handmaid of democracy. We must 
therefore note the introduction of manual train- 
ing, domestic science, the industrial arts in gen- 
eral, in short all that is implied in the term, 
" vocational training " as a move in the right 
direction. When children can learn by doing, 
school becomes an interesting place to them, and 
when they learn to govern themselves while 
doing, they are far on the road to good citizen- 
ship. Learning and living then become one. 
Since the majority of children in the schools, or 
three out of five, are destined to earn their living 
by the sweat of their brows, it seems only fitting 
that the school should be closely linked with life 
and work. 

The continuation school too, deserves commen- 
dation. What is more necessary in a democracy 
than that children who leave school to enter 
industry as soon as their state law permits, should 
be given a chance to continue their education 
under proper guidance, and at hours which 
will not interfere with the working day. In our 
cities which have a large immigrant population, 
such schools are essential to thorough Ameri- 
canization. 

It goes without saying that good teachers are 
necessary if the schools are to be good. There- 
fore every effort to raise the standards of the 
teaching force should be encouraged. There is 



124 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

great variation among different states in regard 
to teachers' training. " In one state four-fifths 
of the teachers have only an elementary educa- 
tion, while in others all are at least normal- 
school or high-school graduates."^ In some states 
the pay offered is much higher than in others, 
and higher salaries naturally attract a better- 
trained class of teachers. The teacher of the 
future must understand human relationships 
better than he has in the past, if children are to 
grow up with a more wholesome respect for the 
obligations growing out of such relationships. 
Good citizenship implies a recognition of these 
obligations. In a successful democracy, each 
man is his brother's keeper, and he must be im- 
bued with the fraternal spirit in childhood, if 
he is to exercise it properly in manhood. 

Europe is also responding to the cry of youth 
for an education that fits for life. Many laudable 
undertakings were checked by the war, and others 
that had persisted for years were discarded 
because they failed to meet the demands of a 
new world. At a public-school conference held 
in Berlin in July, 1920, Germany laid the foun- 
dations for a new educational system. France 
recognizes, as never before, that a new social 
order can arise only on the foundation of proper 
instruction of the children. Anatole France in 
addressing French teachers said : 



*Ross, The Principles of Sociology, p. 602. 



Education 125 



In developing the child you will determine the future. 
What a task at this hour, when the world is crumbling, when 
the old order of society sinks under the weight of its sins; 
. . . . It is for you to create a new humanity, it is for 
you to awake a new intelligence, if you do not wish Europe 
to fall into madness and barbarism/ 

Czecho-Slovakia, too, has started a campaign 
to lessen the illiteracy of her people by schools 
modeled on the American plan. Bohemia has 
long been known for her emphasis on education, 
but other districts of the new republic show an 
illiteracy rate as high as 75 per cent. If the 
present vigorous measures are carried out, the 
record for the next generation will be a vast 
improvement on this. 

But there is need in a democracy for higher 
education as well as for the elementary kind. 
There is need of training for business and the 
professions as well as for the factory and farm ; 
and there is also need for that cultural training 
which enriches the spirit of man. Colleges and 
universities filled to overflowing offer testimony 
that the youth of the United States appreciate 
opportunities for higher education. In a society 
that is dominantly industrial, a movement away 
from classical learning is inevitable. The 
emphasis will be rather upon the sciences, phys- 
ical and social, and their basic and subsidiary 
studies. The monastic idea of education pro- 
jected itself even into the twentieth century, but 
it is vanishing fast before the onrush of a new 



^The Survey, November 13, 1920, p. 255. 



126 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

day. The tendency of such a reaction is to mini- 
mize the inestimable contribution of the learning 
of past ages to modern civilization. Higher 
education might be made so practical that cul- 
ture, as we now understand the term, would be 
shoved off the shores of democracy. That would 
be deplorable. An opportunity for each to enjoy 
the " best life " which was accepted in an earlier 
chapter as the criterion of democracy should be 
held to include participation in the richest 
scholarship, if that is desired. The extension of 
so-called practical education should not be inter- 
preted to mean dwarfing the intellectually great, 
for democracy has need of these. 

Another significant phase of education is that 
of the adult workers. The spirit of this has been 
well stated by Philip Snowden : 

I would rather have better education given to the masses 
of the working classes than the best for a few. "O God, 
make no more giants; elevate the race."* 

Deprived of schooling in childhood and early 
youth, laboring men and women are now trying 
to secure for themselves the advantages of learn- 
ing. They believe that knowledge is power, and 
they are going to have it. This movement has a 
social value out of all proporition to its numerical 
importance. Working people are in the majority 
in this country, as well as in others, and when 
their representative organizations put the seal of 



* Quoted by Arthur Gleason, Workers' Education, p. 39. 



Education 127 



their approval on education for their members, 
the problem of securing a more intelligent citi- 
zenry is half solved. 

There is nothing particularly new about classes 
for v^orkers. These have been provided by social 
settlements, and other welfare organizations for 
a generation. As early as 1854, there was a 
Working Men's College in London. It was 
started by the efforts of John Ruskin and Charles 
Kingsley who viewed with concern the widening 
breach between workers and non-workers caused 
by the growth of industrialism and the expen- 
siveness of education. This was well received. 
Years later University Extension carried the 
leaven of learning into the hinterland, and the 
labors of Arnold Toynbee and others in this field 
foreshadowed the social settlement movement in 
England and America. Thus, step by step, have 
the workers been led along the bypaths of educa- 
tion by men and women who have made the 
cause of labor their own. The significant feature 
of the more recent developments in adult workers' 
education is that the initiative has been shifted, 
and today it is Trade Unions, cooperative 
societies, and the like that are doing the organ- 
izing. It has been said that workingmen seeking 
an education are interested first of all in a new 
social order, and they are therefore keenly alive 
to such studies as will acquaint them with the 
best methods of bringing about a changed society. 
To this end they ask for courses in industrial 
history, economics, and other social sciences, 



128 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

socialism, the labor movement, and public speak- 
ing in order that they may be able to pass on 
what they have learned to other groups. There 
is also some demand, especially from women, 
for literature and recreational arts. In some 
instances a wider variety of courses is desired. 

The Trade Union College is now an accepted 
fact in many American cities. The teachers are 
forward-looking men and women drawn mainly 
from local institutions of learning. Discussion 
is an important feature of the class, while the 
examination is practically non-existant. Formal 
tests are not necessary for the serious students, 
and they are useless for those seeking only enter- 
tainment. The United States has now in good 
running order about twenty-five experiments in 
this new type of education for the adult worker. 
The Boston Trade Union College, under the 
auspices of the Boston Central Labor Union 
"was organized shortly after the end of the 
World War to help prepare the workers of New 
England for the role of increasing importance 
which labor is to play in the new social order."^ 
This was the first college to be started by the 
central labor body of a city, and it has been 
watched with considerable interest. Full infor- 
mation concerning American and foreign experi- 
ments of this character are set forth in Mr. Arthur 



*Gleason, Workers' Education; American and Foreign 
Experiments, p. 2y. 



Education 129 



Gleason's pamphlet on Workers^ Education?- It 
is not necessary to go into further detail here in 
regard to American efforts, nor to insist on their 
value. That is self-evident, and adult education 
is now the watchword of many who are looking 
forward to a new era. 

England furnishes one of the most interesting 
experiments in this line that the world has seen. 
This is the Workers' Education Association. It 
has realized the education of the masses in a 
sense hitherto unknown. Started in 1903, it 
has extended its work all through the British 
Isles, in rural as well as in industrial regions, 
with branches in Canada and Australia. An out- 
growth of this, the World Association for Adult 
Education, founded in 1918, has branches in 
twenty-six countries. The work is carried on 
by the united effort of Trade Unions, cooperative 
societies, and universities, all three groups con- 
tributing to the support of the movement. 
Democracy thrives on such undertakings. 

The continent of Europe, too, furnishes illus- 
tration that the educational needs of labor are 
being carefully considered. The Peoples' High 
Schools in Denmark are a case in point. It is said 
that Belgium, through the Central Board for 
Workers' Education has 

. . . . the most comprehensive undertaking for the 
education of the workers by the workers, and for the pur- 



* Published by the Bureau of Industrial Research, New 
York, 1 92 1. 



130 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

poses of the labor movement itself, that has been made in 
any country in Europe.^ 

The schools are of three degrees : the element- 
ary local schools, the district schools, and the 
higher national schools. There is also an elab- 
orate plan to provide higher education for the 
workers, and even now a National Labor School 
has been established, and special traveling 
scholarships good for three months have been 
provided for the best pupils, so that they may 
taste the advantages of study in another country. 
Workers in Belgium, as elsewhere, are primarily 
interested in economic problems, the history of 
the labor movement, the principles of socialism, 
and allied subjects, and these naturally appear in 
the syllabi. The work in the classroom is 
informal, but it calls for teaching of a high order. 
Adult workers at school would never tolerate the 
mediocre teaching so often imposed on college 
youth. It is a chastening experience to teach 
adult working people, as anyone who has tried 
it knows. The scrutinizing mind of the worker 
flays academic platitudes, and the teacher is 
forced into giving his best thought to his task. 
If he does not do this, he is despised and rejected. 

Even a hasty glance over the field of educa- 
tional endeavor shows at least a tendency to 
introduce democratic features everywhere. This 
should encourage those who are working on 



*De Man, "How Belgian Labor is Educating Itself," The 
Survey, September i, 1920, p. 667. 



Education 131 



reconstruction programs, but it should not satisfy 
them. Education must be socialized if democracy- 
is to be saved. That is the great educational task 
confronting the nation today. 

REFERENCES 

BOOKS 

Dewey, Evelyn, New Schools for Old, E. P. Button & 
Company, 19 19. 

Dewey, John, Democracy and Education, The Macmillan 
Company, 19 16. 

Dewey, John, The School and Society, The University of 
Chicago Press, 1916. 

Elwood, Charles A., Sociology and Modern Social Prob- 
lems, American Book Company, 1913. 

Fox, Genevieve M., When Labor Goes to School, (Pam- 
phlet) The Woman's Press, 1920. 

Gillette, John Morris, Vocational Education, American 
Book Company, 19 10. 

Gleason, Arthur H., Workers' Education: American and 
Foreign Experiments, (Pamphlet) Bureau of Industrial 
Research, 1921, New York. 

Mansbridge, Albert, An Adventure in Working-Class Edu- 
cation, Longmans, Green & Co., 1920. 

Ross, Edward A., The Principles of Sociology, The Cen- 
tury Co, 1920. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Cady, Mary, "Eventual Education," Association Monthly, 
January, 1921. 

De Man, Henry, "How Belgian Labor Is Educating It- 
self," The Survey, September i, 1920. 

Fichandler, Alexander, "Labor Education," The Survey, 
January 8, 1921. 

Gleason, Arthur, "Workers' Education in Britain," The 
Survey, November 13, 1921. 

Sharp, Dallas Lore, "Education for Individuality," The 
Atlantic Monthly, June, 1920. 



CHAPTER IX 
RADICALISM 

THE number of persons opposed to the exist- 
ing order of society varies inversely with the 
liberty enjoyed by individuals in that society. 
Where tyranny is grinding, opposition is fierce 
although it may be voiceless. Oppression breeds 
rancor, and the oppressed seek a way out. Those 
who propose a way out are the radicals of the 
time. And the radicals of today may be the 
conservatives of tomorrow. Dissatisfaction is 
bound to occur in any human society. Even 
among the angels jealousy is said to have arisen 
and paradise was lost to some because of it. 
Petty grievances appear in any group, and they 
fret the souls of men for a time. But there are 
also wrongs that should be righted, and these 
have led to the great reform movements of the 
ages ; they have led to revolution and deadly 
war. The leaders were radicals, but they justi- 
fied their radicalism. 

The kind of radicalism current in a democracy 
is, however, different in degree if not in character, 
and manifests itself mainly in oral or written 
protest. This protest may assume the propor- 
tions of a political party, or it may be only a 
voice crying in the wilderness. Ordinarily the 

132 



Radicalism 133 



rank and file of the people pay little heed to the 
toy pistols of the discontented, while the govern- 
ment is sublimely unconscious of any commotion. 
But when nations are at war, the condition is 
changed, and even whispered protests may be 
menacing. The United States, as well as the 
European countries, is just emerging from such 
a sensitive period, and it therefore seems per- 
tinent to inquire at this time, what constitutes 
radicalism and what treatment should be 
accorded to it in a democracy. Destructive criti- 
cism of the government in war time should doubt- 
less be silenced when it might lend aid and 
comfort to the enemy. The nation has an indis- 
putable right to say that those who are not for 
her are against her. 

We have seen in the foregoing chapters that 
conditions in the land of freedom are not all that 
they should be. The forces of reconstruction are 
needed to work out more desirable situations, 
but the forces set in motion by governing bodies 
are frequently slow in accomplishment, and those 
who are eager for improvement often grow, first 
impatient at delays, and then distrustful of 
promises. This leads to discontent which, as it 
increases in volume, results in organizations 
quite out of sympathy with the powers that be. 
In other words the radicals go to the root of the 
matter at once and are unsparing in their criti- 
cism. Since no group has a monopoly of wisdom, 
conflicts of opinion are bound to occur. 



134 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

As a criticism of adverse social conditions, 
radicalism in its varied forms should act as a 
wholesome stimulant to democratic enterprises. 
The sincere radical reconstructionist is entitled 
to a respectful hearing ; but the demagogue with 
an open throttle is a menace to any society, no 
matter what shade of political or social belief 
he represents. And the demagogues are not all 
found sitting in the seats of the scornful. Democ- 
racy has some vulnerable points, and one of them 
is the ease with which demagogery flourishes. 
The rights of free speech and free assemblage 
give to the false prophet his opportunity. It is 
easy to play the game of follow the leader. The 
average human individual detests the laborious 
mental processes involved in thinking, therefore, 
he is quite ready to accept the ready-made 
thought of someone else without questioning its 
validity. Fads in religion and politics and social 
life thus gain great headway if presented in an 
attractive manner. 

It takes no special discernment to see that such 
a situation opens the way freely to the promotion 
of all kinds of doctrines from indigenous Re- 
publicanism to exotic Bolshevism. Democracies 
are not exempt from the consequences of human 
nature. Radicalism will have its adherents as 
well as conservatism. And when injustice pre- 
vails, the former will become vocal. Radicalism 
is after all only advanced thought proposing new 
remedies for old ills. There is nothing in this to 
cause fright; there is much to call for respectful 



Radicalism 135 



attention. It is only the extremists on both sides 
who create ferment. 

It is not the purpose here to go into details in 
regard to the varied forms in which radicalism 
manifests itself in this country, but rather to 
outline the general situation. 

Since the ignorant and weak are the ones most 
readily exploited by the educated and powerful, 
it is not surprising that these should flock to the 
standard of radicalism when it offers a way out. 

The toad beneath the harrow knows 
Exactly where each tooth-point goes; 
The butterfly upon the road 
Preaches contentment to that toad. 

And because most of the ills of the ignorant 
and unskilled are due to unfortunate industrial 
conditions, it is quite understandable that a good 
deal of their venom should be directed against 
the institution of private capital, which they feel 
perpetuates the evils. In this they are aided by 
many persons who, though they have not them- 
selves experienced industrial hardships, are, from 
the highest motives, ready to take up the cause 
of the oppressed. Then there are those who are 
temperamentally in favor of every kind of 
rebellion against authority. They are like the 
Irishman who, upon seeing a street fight, rushed 
up inquiring, " Is this a private fight or can any- 
one get in?" It is the people of this class who 
are the most difficult to deal with, and who are 
most likely to cause trouble in a democracy as 



136 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

well as in countries with less liberal forms of 
government. Their conduct is rarely reasoned, 
and suggestion plays a great part in determining 
their lines of activity. As a noted psychiatrist 
says: 

You can more easily convince some people by a hunger 
strike than you can with a lecture on mental contagion. 
They will not, or cannot, see that a man who substitutes his 
stomach for his reason as the umpire of his cause, and 
stakes the morality of his case on his ability to withstand 
starvation, is dangerously near to lunacy. His fight is no 
better than the old ordeal by fire or water, or the old wager 
of battle, and it is not nearly so picturesque.* 

Such people are the greatest enemies of any 
cause. They are transients in thought who are 
bent upon one reform today and another tomor- 
row. They go zestfully on their way, often wel- 
coming martyrdom if it be conspicuous. They 
are the notoriety seekers who ally themselves 
with any cause and frequently bring odium upon 
it. An entirely worthy cause is often injured by 
unbalanced adherents, but no good purpose is 
gained by persecuting them. They are annoying 
like mosquitoes. At any time they may act as 
malaria carriers in a country at war. These must 
not be confused with honest radicals who protest 
because they must. The freedom enjoyed in a 
democratic country simplifies the machinery of 
protesting groups. There is no need for under- 
ground passages. It is not necessary to maintain 



* Lloyd, "Mental Contagion and Popular Crazes," Scrib- 
ner's Magazine, February, 1921, p. 203. 



Radicalism 137 



secrecy when objectors to the present order are 
within the laws of the land. This facilitates 
organization. 

Undoubtedly the strongest voice of protest in 
this country is that of the socialists. Socialism 
in its more moderate forms has exercised a benef- 
icent influence on American society by focusing 
attention on social maladjustments ; for wrongs 
never are righted until someone talks about them. 
Many undertakings formerly considered social- 
istic are now carried on in various municipalities 
by old-time political parties, and no one feels that 
the ship of state has grounded on the shoals of 
radicalism. 

The extremist offshoots of socialism attack 
present society with a ferocity that exhibits sur- 
prising vigor. They look forward to a catastro- 
phic revolution to usher in a new age, and are 
willing to go to any lengths to bring this about. 
A monkey wrench thrown into the machinery, a 
bullet fired into a human head, a bomb planted 
under a house — all these are methods of ex- 
treme radicalism with which we have become 
only too familiar during the last few years. Noth- 
ing worse could be perpetuated under Czarism. 
But the United States is not the only country 
that has to deal with fanatical groups bent on 
destruction. This is heartening perhaps, but not 
explanatory. Any country that has large bodies 
of people living close to a bare subsistence level 
is a target for such practices, regardless of its 
form of government. A democracy with a hetero- 



138 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

geneous working population can become a center 
of unrest, as well as an absolute monarchy. A 
liberal form of government alone will not allay 
discontent over unfavorable industrial conditions. 
Universal suffrage apparently does not provide 
work and homes and comforts and pleasures for 
all. There are many here who have no permanent 
work, only hovels for homes, and none of the 
joys of life. Such people respond readily to 
revolutionary doctrine. Bertrand Russell's idea 
that the aim of politics should be to make men 
happy really belongs in the democratic scheme, 
but in actual practice the aim of politics seems to 
be to make the politicians happy. A vote is an 
empty honor to a hungry man ; it will not make 
him loyal to his government. He asks for some- 
thing more tangible and nourishing. The fam- 
ished lives of the poor are a blot on the scutcheon 
of democracy, and one must needs be a reac- 
tionary indeed not to lend a sympathetic ear to 
their miseries. Vachel Lindsay voices our feel- 
ing when he says : 

Not that they starve, but starve so dreamlessly, 
Not thai they sow, but that they seldom reap, 

Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve, 
Not that they die, but that they die like sheep. 

A society that fosters grave inequalities among 
men through its industrial system must not be 
surprised at ominous sounds of revolt. The 
sounds are a symptom, and stifling will not cure 



Radicalism 139 



the disease. The whole question of free speech 
thus becomes an issue that cannot be dodged 
in a democracy by the assertion that free speech 
is guaranteed by the constitution. The guarantee 
must be more than a '' scrap of paper " if free 
men and women are to be satisfied. Talking 
about troubles is a comfort to a social group 
as well as to an individual, and should not be 
interfered with even though it be a petty annoy- 
ance to the listener. The open forum is a safety 
valve in times of discontent. The soap-box 
orator is a safer person than the one with flam- 
ing thoughts and muzzled mouth. 

Anyone who has followed the crowd on a Sun- 
day afternoon in Hyde Park, London, where for 
many years everyone with a grievance has been 
free to air it, and has heard all kinds of social, 
political, and religious heresies expressed, feels 
the strength of the nation that does not fear free 
discussion. A man here may be fiercely demand- 
ing the abolition of the House of Lords, while 
one there is inviting everyone to secure a home 
in "a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." He who can get an audience may im- 
part his views. The fact that many views are 
not worth imparting would be small justification 
for taking away the privilege. 

In our own country there is an amazing sensi- 
tiveness in some quarters to any restrictions 
whatsoever upon the utterance of one's beliefs 
wholly regardless of their character. Hostility 



140 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

to the war-time Espionage Acts furnishes a case 
in point. People sometimes forget that the 
greatest good of the greatest number must be 
the determining factor in the policy of a democ- 
racy whether in war or peace. He who wants 
to vent his venom against things as they are is 
not always a savior in embryo. By all means let 
there be freedom to speak in a democracy, but 
there must also be protection for those who may 
be injured by vituperation. Because Emerson 
bade us "beware when the Great God lets loose 
a thinker on the planet " is no reason for believ- 
ing that everyone who breaks loose from sober 
opinion is a thinker, and must be heard with 
reverence. 

After looking over in a general way, the sub- 
ject of the place of radicalism in a democracy, 
one thought emerges, and it is that a democracy 
which aims to be something more than a mere 
gesture of liberalism should make every effort to 
root out the evils that render men miserable and 
breed strife. Child labor should be abolished 
and compulsory education substituted. A whole- 
some, happy childhood should be the lot of every 
child. Health-destroying processes should be 
eliminated from industry by the aid of scientific 
discoveries ; and men and women should not be 
kept at work to the breaking point. Miss 
Josephine Goldmark's remarkable studies^ in the 



^Josephine Goldmark, Fatigue and Efficiency, Charities 
Publication Committee, New York, 19 12. 



Radicalism 141 



effects of fatigue prove conclusively that the 
overworking of laborers is bad business as v^ell 
as bad morals. The terrors of unemployment 
should be eliminated in order that workers 
would not be haunted by the fear of starvation. 
Careful planning and cooperation could dove- 
tail seasonal trades. The ingenuity of one man 
practically removed the seasonal features of the 
shoe industry, which had always been a serious 
drawback to the workers in that trade. Similar 
foresight in the management of other industries 
could help to remove a potent factor in discon- 
tent. The boll weavil is no more of a menace 
to the United States than unemployment, yet 
the former has received much more considera- 
tion from the government. The saving of the 
cotton crop is surely of no greater importance 
in a democracy than the cultivation of a healthy, 
happy, and useful body of wage-earners. Recon- 
struction plans must consider this, and recon- 
structionists must proceed to remove certain 
obvious causes of class hatred. There still will 
be a residue of ills which will continue to disturb 
mankind in an imperfect society, but the most 
fertile causes of rancorous radicalism will have 
been eliminated. 

Democracy's first task, therefore, is to render 
herself blameless of charges of criminal neglect 
of even the least of her children brought against 
her by the dissatisfied ; and after all that is done, 
to lend a respectful ear to the voice of sane pro- 



142 Some Problems of Reconstruction 

test. Then perhaps all will be ready to recognize 
the mutual interdependence of men and say with 
Edwin Markham : 

There is a destiny that makes us brothers; 

None goes his way alone; 
All that we send into the lives of others 

Comes back into our own. 

I care not what his temples or his creeds, 

One thing holds firm and fast — 
That into his fateful heap of days and deeds 

The soul of man is cast. 

REFERENCES 

BOOKS 

Chafee, Zechariah, Jr., Freedom of Speech, Harcourt, 
Brace and Howe, 1920. 

Goldmark, Josephine, Fatigue and Efficiency, Charities 
Publication Committee, New York, 1912. 

Russell, Bertrand, Proposed Roads to Freedom, Henry 
Holt and Company, 1919. 

Spargo, John, Americanism and Social Democracy, Har- 
per & Brothers, 1918. 

Spargo, John, Social Democracy Explained, Harper & 
Brothers, 1918. 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 
Lloyd, James Hendrie, (M. D.), "Mental Contagion and 
Popular Crazes," Scribner's Magazine, February, 1921. 



INDEX 

Aesthetic, gratification of wants connected with the de- 
sire for the, 23 
Alden, Percy, quoted on housing, 98 
Aliens, and the World War, 65 
America, capital's cooperation with labor in, 34 
American Army, and illiteracy of drafted men, 68 
American schools, and German language, 74 
Americanization, 64; and Appalachian mountaineers, 80; 
and housing, 102; and Indians, 80; and language, 68; 
and schools, 123; and the Negro, 80, 83; and Y. M. C. 
A., 74, 78; and Y. W. C. A., 78; Aronovici, quoted on, 
80; of workers in industrial plants, Tj; Roberts, methods 

of, 74 
Army, American, ignorance of English among drafted 

men in, 68 
Aronovici, Carol, and Americanization, 80; and treatment 

of foreigners, 79 
Appalachian mountaineers and Americanization, 80 
Appalachian mining regions, Negro migration to, 86 
Assimilation, of aliens, lack of, 65 
Autocracy, medieval and American ideal, 14 

Baths, in tenements, 109 

Belgium, and education of adults, 129; and housing laws, 

114; first country to undertake rehabilitation of 

soldiers, 3 
Berlin, Germany, public-school conference held in, 124 
Bogardus, Emory S., cited on Negro education, 95; on 

immigration, 66 
Bohemia, and education, 125 
Boll weevil, 141 

Boston Trade Union College, the, 128 
Bournville, England, attractive garden city, 112 

Canada, housing provisions in, 113; lent expert on re- 
habilitation to the U. S., 3; problems identical to those 
oftheU. S., 3 

Capital, and increased production, 34; and labor, 26; and 
wage demands, 34 

143 



144 Index 



Charlesbank Homes in Boston, no 

Chartists' riots, 19 

Chenery, William L., and President Wilson's Industrial 

Conference, 41 
Chicago Stockyards strike, 35 
Child labor, 140 

Children, and pre-natal disease, 21 
Chinese, and railroad building, 67; Exclusion Act, 67; 

living standards of immigrant, 67 
Citizenship, and literacy, 119; and marriage, 71 
Civil War, and immigration, 67; great fortunes amassed 

during, 29; industrial development after, 29 
Commissions, established in European countries after the 

World War, 4 
Committee, interministerial, created for restoring invaded 

areas in World War, 5 
Community kitchens, 53 
Crime, and the Negro, 92, 95 
Croatian League, 75 
Czecho-Slovakia, and campaign for education, 125 

Demobilization, 9; and the labor situation, 27 

Democracy, 13; fight for, 7; ideal of the twentieth cen- 
tury, 24; industrial, social, political, 18, 24; interpreta- 
tions of, 15; "world made safe for," 15 

Democratization, 24 

Denmark, Peoples' High Schools of, 129 

Discontent, 16; among women laborers, 57; Kingsley 
cited on, 16; solution of, 42 

Disease, and the Negro, 93 

Distinctions, artificial, among classes, 14 

Doctrine of divine right, 19; of kings, 7 

Domestic help, shortage of during World War, 52; 
service, 53 

Douglass, Frederick, cited on the Negro exodus, 85 

Draft, the, and illiteracy of aliens, 68 

Education, 116; adult workers, 126, 129; and the individ- 
ual, 118; and the Negro, 93; higher, 119, 125; monastic 
idea, 125; the gratification of wants connected with, 23 

Ellwood, Charles A., cited, 68, 117, 119 

Emancipation, 83; and political rights of Negro in 
Georgia, 84; and progress of the Negro, 94 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, cited, 140 



Index 145 



England, and women's labor after the World War, 49; 

cooperation of labor in, 33; garden cities in, 105, iii; 

labor situation in, 30; moral awakening, 9; and Labor 

Party in Parliament, 41 
English garden cities, 105, 11 1 
Enfranchisement of women, 46, 71 
Epidemics, and city slums, 66 
Espionage Acts, 140 
Executive Board of the Georgia Federation of Women's 

Clubs, and lynching, 92 
Extravagance, and women, 59 
European countries, commissions established in, 4 

Factory system in England and America, 45 

Famine, potato, in Ireland, 66 

Ford Motor Company, profit-sharing scheme, 77 

France, Anatole, cited, 124 

France, and after-the-war work, 4; and education of chil- 
dren, 124; financial aid received, 5; reconstruction prob- 
lem in, 5; used colored troops in World War, 90 

French Revolution, 19 

Friedman, Elisha M., on replacement of men by women, 
58; and reconstruction plans for women in the trades, 49 

Garden cities in England, 105, in 

German language, in American schools, 74 

Germany, political revolution in, 66; laid foundation for 

new educational system, 124 
Ginn, Edwin, and Charlesbank Homes, Boston, no 
Gleason, Arthur, cited, 129 
Goldmark, Josephine, cited, 140 
Government, and "three years truce," 31 
Great Britain, and reconstruction, 6; used Negroes in 

World War, 90 
Greener, Richard T., and Negro migration, 85 

Health, gratification of desires connected with, 21 

Hill, Howard C, cited on race relations, 95; on foreign 

organizations, 75 
Housing and location of industrial plants, 104; conditions 
in northern cities and the Negro, 92; conditions during 
the World War, 51, 99; conditions in New York, 103; 
enterprises, municipal, 109; in New York after War of 
1812, 106; in the U. S., 98; laws previous to World War, 



146 Index 



114; of the middle classes, 105; problem, in England, 
99; undertakings, philanthropic, no 

Illiteracy test and immigration law, 69, 70; and Serbia, 

69; and the draft, 68 
Immigrants, Chinese, living standards of, 67; early, 69; 

from southeastern Europe, 67 
Immigration, after the World War, 69; and Civil War, 
67; and railroad building, 67; due to revolution in Po- 
land, 72\ law, 67; law and literacy test, 69, 70; problem, 
65, 66, 71 
Indians, and Americanization, 80; and the Negro, 86 
Industrial Conference, President Wilson's, 41 
Industrial, difficulties, 26; plants, and Americanization 
work, yy; location of, and housing, 104; revolution, and 
distinctions between classes, 19 
Industry, 9, 10; effect of returned soldiers on, 27 
Interministerial committee created during World War, 5 
Ireland, potato famine in, 66 

Jamestown settlers, 64 

Jews, 67 

"Jim Crow" cars, 15, 88 

Kingsley, Charles, cited, 16, 127 
Kultur, 66 

Labor, as a dictator, 30; its desire for a voice in control 
of work, 28, 34, 39; question, 9; situation and returned 
soldiers, 27; woman's, 44 

Labor Party in Parliament in England, and unrest, 41 

Laborers, foreign, and unrest, 71 

Language, and Americanization, 68; German, in Ameri- 
can schools, 74 

Languages, spoken in the U. S., 7Z 

Law, immigration, 67; immigration and literacy test, 69, 
70 

Laws, housing, in thirteen states, 113 

Legislation, minimum wage, 62 

Leverhulme, Lord, and model village, iii, 112; and six- 
hour day, Z7 

Liberia, efforts to establish Negro in, 90 

Lindsay, Vachel, quoted, 138 

Lippincott, Isaac, on industry, 10 



Index 147 



Literacy, and citizenship of alien women, 71 

Living, standards of, (general), 61; Chinese immigrants, 

Lynching, Negro protest against, 91 

Machines, their effect on employer and employee, 28 

Magna Carta, 33 

Markham, Edwin, quoted, 142 

Marriage, and citizenship of alien women, 71; and 

women's labor, 45 
Married women, and high wages, 48 
McDowell, Mary, views on extravagance, 59 
Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of 

the Industrial Classes in England, 108 
Migration, Negro, causes of, 84, 88; in 1916-17, 87; North, 

86; to Appalachian mining districts, 86; West, 85 
Ministry of Reconstruction in England, 6 
Model tenements, 108; villages, no 
Mountaineers, Appalachian, and Americanization, 80 
Mullanphy Apartments, St. Louis, no 

Nation, problems confronting the, 11 

National Americanization Committee, 76 

National Independence Day, 76 

National Labor School, 130 

National Urban League, 95 

National Women's Trade Union League of America, 62 

New York, housing conditions in, after War of 1812, 106; 
after World War, 103 

Negro, the, and Americanization, 80, 83; and crime, 92, 
95; and disease, 93; and education, 93; and housing con- 
ditions, 92; and the World War, 90; exodus and Doug- 
lass, 85; exodus and Greener, 85; in British Army, 90; 
labor in South, 89; lynching of, 91; migration, causes 
of, 88; migration in 1916-17, 87; migrations North, 84, 
86; migration West, 85; plans to transport, 90; progress 
of, since emancipation, 94; number of in the World 
War, 91; segregation of, 93 

Night schools, 74, 77 

North, Negro migration to, 84, 86 

Open-door policy, 69 

Open forum, 139 

Opportunity, extension of, to all peoples, 24 



148 Index 



Organizations, foreign, in the U. S., 75 

Pan-Hellenic Union, 75 

Panic, financial, and immigration, 67 

Parker, Carleton, cited, 61 

Peabody, George, and worklngmen's homes, 109, no 

Peasants, Italian, 7; revolts, 19 

Pilgrim Fathers, 64 

Poland, disorders in, and immigration, 72 

Poliomyelitis, 66 

Polish Central Relief Committee of America, 75 

Population, of U. S., number of foreign birth in the, 72, 

7y, Negro, per cent of, 84 
Port Sunlight, England, model town, 112 
Post-war problems, of England, 8; of Italy, 8; of Japan, 8 
Power, of laborers to determine working conditions, 28 
Profit-sharing, results of, 39; Ford Motor Company, 

scheme of, 77 
Progress, U. S. rank in, 68 

Public-school conference in Berlin, Germany, 124 
Pullman, Illinois, experiment as model village, in 

Railroads, building of, and Chinese, 67; and immigra- 
tion, 67 

Reconstruction, 20; world's problem, 2; in industry, 26; 
in Scandinavia, 5 

Reconstruction Commission of the State of New York, 
recommendations of, 104 

Rehabilitation, of soldiers, 2 

Rents, and the wage-earner, 100; doubled, 106; high, 105 

Revolution, political in Germany, 66; stimulating, 7; in- 
dustrial, 19 

Rightness, the desire for, 23 

Roberts, Peter, and methods of Americanization, 74 

Ross, Edward A., quoted, 121, 122; on assimilation of 
foreigners, 72 

Rountree, Seebohm, quoted on extravagance, 59 

Ruskin, John, cited, 127 

Russell, Bertrand, cited, 138 

Russia, and Soviet, 41 

Scandinavia, and reconstruction, 5 

Schools, American, and German language, 74; and Amer- 
icanization, 123; and the wage-earner, 117; night, 74, 
77\ public, 119 



Index 149 



Segregation, of Negro, 93 

Self-expression, and the wage-earner, 39 

Serbia, and illiteracy, 69 

Sharp, Dallas Lore, cited on patriotism of foreigners, 79; 

on the public schools. 120 
Slums, city, and housing. 99; and epidemics, 66 
Small, Albion W., and democracy, 20, 21 
Snowden, Philip, quoted on education, 126 
Social instincts, gratification of desires connected with, 22 
Socialism, 137 

South, and Negro labor, 85, 89; Negro population in, 84 
Southern Educational Association, resolutions of, 93, 94 
Soviet, in Russia, 41 

Speech, free, and Espionage Acts, 140; liberty of, 139 
Standards, American, and adaptability of foreigners, 79; 

of teachers, 123 
Stockyards, strike in 1904, 35; women's labor in, 61 
Strike, of the Chicago Stockyards, 35; (general) and the 

after-effects, 2)7 
Suffrage, women's, 13; universal, 18, 138 
Sweatshops, 107 

Teachers, raising standards of, 123; salaries of, 124 

Telephone industry, and women, 54 

Tenement house law, 107 

Tenements, 106; model, 108 

"Three years' truce," 31; and women, 50 

Todd, Arthur J., quoted on women in industry, 48 

Towns, industrial, in 

Toynbee, Arnold, cited, 127 

Trade, after-the-war, in neutral countries, 5; foreign, 5 

Trade Union College, the, 128 

Trade Union, restrictions, 31 

Trade Unions, 127; and high wages, 36; methods of, 36 

Treatment of foreigners in the U. S., Aronovici cited, 79 

Truce, "three years'," 31; and women, 50 

Tufts, James H., definition of democracy, 18; cited, 19 

Tuskegee Institute, 93 

United States, and foreign organizations, 75; and human 
rehabilitation, 3; annual number of disabled in, 4; lan- 
guages spoken in. 73; rank in progress, 68 

United States Housing Corporation, the, 100, no 



150 Index 



United States Senate and the Negro question, 85 

Universal suffrage, 18, 138 

University Extension, work of, 127 

Unrest, and foreign laborers, 71; and the English Labor 
Party in Parliament, 41; and relations between em- 
ployer and employee, 40; due to aristocratic view, 19; 
industrial, 26; social, 18 

Wage-earner, the, and rents, 100; and self-expression, 39 
Wages, high in war industries, 27; women's 48, 61 
Washington, Booker T., 93; and Tuskegee Institute, 93 
Wealth, gratification of desires connected with, 22 
Webb, Sidney, views on industrial situation, 31 
Welfare work, and Mr. Ford, 77 
West, Negro migration to the, 84; opening of railroads 

in, 67 
White, Alfred T., on model tenements, 108 
Whitley, J. H., quoted, zz 
Whitley Reports, 32, 33 

Wilson, Woodrow, and new social organization, 17 
Woman's labor, and marriage, 45; pre-war situation of, 44 
Women's suffrage, 13 

Women, and enfranchisement, 46, 71; and extravagance, 
59; and the telephone industry, 54; and the "three 
years' truce," 50; and the World War, 47; married, and 
citizenship, 71; married, and high wages, 48; munition 
workers in England, 50; in France, 50; in the U. S., 
50, 51; employment of, effects on life, 48; instability of, 
in labor, 57; workers, status of, 61 
Woodson, Carter G., and housing of the Negro migrants, 

92; and Negro migration, 86 
Workers' Education Association, 129 
Working Men's College, London, 127 
World Association for Adult Education, 129 
World War, the, and aliens, 65; and British post-war 
problems, 8; effect on immigration, 67, 68; French 
Negroes in, 90; interministerial committee created dur- 
ing, 5; Negroes used in, 90; number of Negroes in, 91 



Y. M. C. A., and Americanization, 74, 78 
Y. W. C. A., and Americanization, 78; efforts for women 
wage-earners, 62 



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